Harry Potter and the Setting Sun
by London Man
Summary: After being expelled, Harry built a new life in Forks. Now he must deal with an army of vengeful vampires, illness, and the return of the love that abandoned him. With all this on his plate, will he ever go back to Britain? SLASH by Early-Frosts.
1. Chapter 1

Title: **Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**  
Category: Books » Harry Potter  
Author: Frosty  
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T  
Genre: Romance/Angst  
Published: 04-23-09, Updated: 07-04-09  
Chapters: 74, Words: 219,652

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. If you need confirmation, please check Frosty's site. Also, I want to thank Early-Frosts for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 1: Prologue**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Prologue**

_Sam and the boys killed a vampire last night. As has become typical, Jacob and Leah made sure that I was far away from any real danger. There are times when I hate that damn pack mentality; it makes it far too easy for the two of them to babysit me._

_All kidding aside, things are getting worse. The number of disappearances in Seattle is continuing to rise, which can mean only one thing: Victoria's army is growing. Pretty soon she'll have enough vampires in her service to kill me, the pack, and every other person within miles. _

_Forks. La Push. All gone. And all because of me._

_If I had never come to Forks, none of this would have happened. Victoria would never have had reason to hunt me. She never would have decided that the Quileute pack was an obstacle to her goal that had to be eradicated. All of the people she has killed in order to turn them into her personal army and all of the people that they have killed for sustenance would still be alive. My hands are soaked in blood._

_The killing, however, won't continue much longer. Things are about to come to a head. I can feel it in my bones._

_Victoria can't keep this up. I am by no means an expert on vampire society, but I do know that there are members of its hierarchy that put down these sorts of armies before they get out of hand. It is a mystery to me why they haven't intervened yet, but they cannot allow things to continue this way for much longer. People are beginning to get ask questions and the one thing that vampires cannot afford is exposure because some tart doesn't understand the meaning of the word 'secret.'_

_The pack can't keep this up. The eight of them can't continue to protect everything from Forks to La Push all the time. They may be stronger and more durable than normal humans, but they still have limits. I fear that they may be about to reach those limits._

_Lastly, I can't keep this up. I'm running out of time._


	2. Chapter 2

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 2: Fridays**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter One – Fridays**

Harry Potter hated Fridays.

With a weary sigh, he sat himself down on the bench outside of the only grocery store in Forks. He hadn't even bothered to wipe the snow off the bench before sitting. The cold of the snow didn't really bother him anymore. Even if it did bother him, he knew that his wait wouldn't be very long. He had barely settled himself down when he heard the familiar honk of Jacob Black's Volkswagen Rabbit.

Harry smiled as his best male friend exuberantly bounded towards him from the car. Leah Clearwater, Harry's best female friend, followed Jacob at a much lazier pace.

"Buy enough?" Jacob asked as he motioned to the half dozen grocery sacks that were pilled in the shopping cart next to Harry.

"For you lot? Probably not," the British teen said in response. He forced a smile, though he didn't feel like there was anything to smile about.

"I know that wasn't directed at me," Leah said as she casually joined the pair.

"Please, I'm pretty sure you eat at least as much as the rest of the pack combined," Jacob joked.

Leah smacked the male shapeshifter one the back of the head hard enough to cause him to lose his balance and topple off the sidewalk and into a pile of snow that had been pushed against the curb by a snow plow. The sight elicited a round of laughter from both Leah and Harry, though the latter's was much more subdued than the former's.

After he had lifted himself up from the cold asphalt and shaken off the damp snow like he was a dog, Jacob shot a childish grin at Harry. The larger boy lifted four of the shopping bags from the cart and made his way with them back to his car. Leah and Harry each took one of the two remaining bags and followed after Jacob. Despite it being common courtesy to return the cart to its rack or to the inside of the store, none of the teens bothered to do so.

The trip to the Black house was a relatively quiet one. Jacob tried his best to make conversation about this and that, but his efforts weren't the least bit successful. Harry was far more appreciative of Leah's stoic silence. She never tried to force a smile on Harry's face, but was always there when he needed her. Harry loved her like a sister for that.

This wasn't to say that Harry didn't appreciate Jacob's efforts at all. The younger teen's infectious good moods were one of his better traits, even if it was an infection that Harry was proving immune to at the moment.

When the trio entered the Black home, Harry wasn't the least bit surprised to see that the entire pack was already present.

Sam Uley, the pack's leader, was leaning against the corner of the small home's kitchen counter watching Emily, his fiancé, making the preparations for the group's heavy lunch. He spared a glance at the trio, but only a glance. He rarely spared more than a glance to either Harry or Leah.

Quil Ateara was sitting on the floor playing a match game with Claire, Emily's toddler niece. The fact that the muscular teen had imprinted on a two-year-old was something that had initially left Harry a bit uneasy. The idea that a teen could take one look at a child and become so smitten that he would rearrange his entire life for her was a very alien and uncomfortable concept to Harry. The wizard had became more comfortable with it once he understood that, at least until Claire was in her teens, the imprinting would only make Quil strive to be the best big brother Claire could ever want. Besides, who was Harry to criticize someone else's love life? He'd spent months pining after a walking corpse.

Embry, Jared, and Paul were crowded on the old, worn-out couch playing a video game that Harry didn't recognize. Not that that was saying much. Harry didn't recognize any of the video games that kids his age played. He could only name the systems that the games were played on because he could remember his cousin whining incessantly to get two of each one.

Jacob's father, Billy Black, was in his wheelchair to the left of the couch. He was reading a newspaper and looking rather disgruntled at the mass of teenage werewolves that were using his television to play video games; he'd much rather be using the television to watch a football game. It was the day after Thanksgiving, so there was bound to be game on and, regardless of who was playing, Billy would be interested in watching it.

The last member of the pack, other than the new arrivals, was Seth Clearwater. Leah's younger brother was just staring out the window right up until he noticed Harry, Jacob, and Leah walk through the door. Once he saw that the three had arrived, he immediately moved from where he was standing by the side window to greet them in the traditional La Push Pack style.

"Food!" Seth cried as he took the grocery bag from Harry.

"Raw food," Harry corrected. "As in, don't eat it until I have a chance to cook it."

"Waiting for you to cook it is one of those things Seth doesn't have any patience for. Kinda like chewing," Leah said mockingly.

As Seth made his way to the kitchen with his newly acquired bag of groceries, he spared a glance back at Harry. "We appreciate the food, but next time leave the road kill wherever you found it," he said jerking his head towards his sister.

"Hardy har har," was all Leah said in response.

Harry followed Seth into the kitchen and, once all of the grocery bags were deposited on the counter, set about his work with Emily.

Emily and Harry had an uneasy friendship due to Harry being Leah's best—and at times only—friend. Leah had been dating Sam before his first transformation. The secret he was forced to bear after that first time strained their relationship for weeks. Then, Sam caught sight of Emily for the first time after becoming a 'werewolf' and imprinted on her. Sam knew that Emily was the one and only girl in the whole world for him. Leah was heartbroken and bitter that Sam would break up with her for her second cousin. Things were made even worse when Leah transformed and was forced to share all of her thoughts and feelings on the matter with her packmates, including Sam, via their pack mentality—the strange psychic connection that all members of the pack shared with one another when in their wolf forms.

Harry understood those feelings of heartache far better than any of Leah's packmates. None of them had been abandoned by the person that seemed to make the world go round the way Harry and Leah had. That understanding is what helped forge the strong bond between Harry and Leah. Despite being Leah's best friend, Harry found it hard to dislike Emily and so didn't try. However, he didn't go out of his way to be her friend, either. Emily seemed to understand Harry's precarious position and so seemed content with the distance. They were nice and polite to one another, but neither warm nor overtly friendly.

All eight of the shapeshifting teens consumed about three times as much food as any normal teenager; therefore, keeping them fed was almost a fulltime job. Harry and Emily had taken it upon themselves to cook for the pack on a daily basis. They worked well together and that was pretty much the extent of their relationship.

Leah and Jacob left Harry to his cooking. Leah took up Seth's former place by the window while Jacob went over to stand behind the boys on the couch. Pretty soon his running commentary of their playing skills could be heard bellowing through the small home.

Seth remained near Harry. He constantly asked questions about what Harry and Emily were cooking. Either he was honestly interested in learning how to cook—which Harry doubted—or he just wanted something to talk about.

"Hey Harry, what's the tomato soup for?" he asked at one point.

"That's my lunch," Harry replied somewhat distractedly as he cut a potato into wedge-shaped pieces to be fried.

"But, aren't you making a bunch of burgers and stuff?"

"Yes, I am. But it's Friday."

"What does . . . oh, sorry," the young shapeshifter said apologetically. After his question about the soup, Seth didn't ask anymore questions of Harry. That may have been because Leah was giving him a glare that could peel paint off the side of Jacob's car. Seth moved himself out of the kitchen and leaned against a wall opposite of sister.

Harry caught Sam giving him a rare sympathetic look out of the corner of his eye. He opted to ignore the look. He didn't want anybody's pity.

An hour later, lunch was ready. About fifteen minutes after that, the teen wolves had devoured half a pasture worth of cow meat. Emily and Harry did the dishes while Billy entertained Claire. The wolves sat about the table discussing the latest happenings on the Reservation. After the dishes were done, Emily left with Claire for the afternoon.

This gave everyone else, Harry included, the opportunity to have 'the Meeting.'

The Meeting was an event that was held several times a week as needed to discuss anything and everything that related to pack's continued efforts against Victoria. The Meeting had been a regular event for several months before Harry had become trusted enough amongst the pack to be let in on any of their secrets. Even after earning Sam's trust, Harry hadn't been allowed to attend until Leah had made the case to Billy that Harry's intimate knowledge of vampires made him an invaluable resource. Sam didn't like it, but he deferred to Billy's wisdom on such things.

Harry sat on the couch between Jacob and Leah while the remaining members of the pack positioned themselves around the room so that they were all sitting in something close to a circle. The Meeting was the only event that Harry could think of that would cause the television in the Black home to be turned off.

Despite the importance of the Meeting, the green-eyed boy only half-paid attention to what was being said. Not that it would have mattered; there wasn't really anything new. Everyone was just re-hashing the same information that they went over every few days.

First, Sam gave orders about who was going to be patrolling where and when. The pack then attempted to estimate how many vampires Victoria likely now had under her command. It was a relatively pointless exercise because the only concrete bit of data they had was the number of missing persons from the area and they had no way of determining whether each disappearance represented a non-supernatural disappearance, a human used by Victoria and her subordinates for sustenance, or a new convert. Everyone then discussed the three vampires that they had managed to kill thus far and the tactics that seemed to be effective against them. The Meeting concluded with the usual speech by Billy Black about the eight wolves' heritage and the importance of their mission to the defense of La Push and Forks. Same old same old.

Once the meeting broke up, everyone went about their lives for the remaining hours before sunset. Only Jacob, Billy, Leah, and Harry remained in the house. Jacob napped, Billy watched the rest of the football game he had been missing, and Leah and Harry played cards.

Neither Harry nor Leah was very interested in the card game, but the two of them were competitive enough that it was a surefire way to pass the time. The afternoon passed quickly and, soon enough, it was 3:30 and the three teens were making their way out the door. It was a quarter to four when they arrived at the hospital and four on the dot when Harry found himself seated in his painfully familiar chair.

"Its good that you brought friends, Mr. Harris," the doctor said, addressing Harry by the alias he had used for over a year. "They should be helpful in keeping your blood pressure down."

Harry smiled weakly at the doctor and mentally prepared himself for the needle stick. No matter how many times he went through this, he always gripped his pants with his free hand, clenched his eyes shut, and held his breath when the time came for the tube to be attached to his arm.

"Another Friday, another round of chemo," he said quietly.

"Not to worry, Mr. Harris. Your latest tests looked good. With a little bit of luck, you should only have another month or so of this."

"He was sitting outside in the snow earlier," Jacob told the doctor.

"Tattletale," Harry snapped.

"Mr. Harris," the doctor said with a strong disapproving tone. "You know that the chemicals depress your immune system. Sitting outside in the cold posses an unacceptable risk of infection."

"I was only outside for a few minutes. Just the time it took to walk the three blocks from my house to the market and the then the thirty seconds I was waiting for my ride to show up. It was no big deal."

The doctor shook his head and muttered something about stubborn teenagers. Harry considered arguing more, but his arm was starting to sting and he just didn't have it in him. With a sigh of resignation, he lay back so that his head rested against the cushioned top of the chair. He used his free arm to remove his black-framed glasses and sat them in his lap as he began to take deep breaths.

At some point, Leah pulled a chair over so that she could sit across from him. She didn't say anything, but her presence was an immeasurable comfort. And Jacob, who was already sitting to his right, took Harry's hand and his and started making wise cracks about Sam and other members of the pack.

Harry Potter hated Fridays. If it weren't for his friends, he wouldn't have even got out of bed.

**A/N:** Just an introductory chapter, really. For those that are curious, this story starts in what would be late November of Harry's sixth year. How and why he's in Forks, how long he's been there, some of the specifics of his cancer, and his relationship with the Cullen family will be covered over the course of the next three chapters.


	3. Chapter 3

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 3: Reminiscence and Reunion**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Two – Reminiscence and Reunion**

There was a time when getting ready for school was a very easy task for Harry Potter. He would wake up, shower, brush his teeth, get dressed, go downstairs and eat breakfast, and then be off to classes. But Harry Potter wasn't at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry anymore. He wasn't even Harry Potter most of the time. He was mostly Jay Harris, a sixteen-year-old junior at Forks High School.

In many ways, getting ready for school was the same. He would still wake up and then shower and get dressed. Having his own kitchen, he now ate breakfast before brushing his teeth. The only major difference was one that made getting ready for school an entirely different experience. The boy stood in front of his bathroom mirror for upwards of tens minutes making sure his disguise was firmly in place before leaving for school.

The disguise wasn't really that of Jay Harris. That boy looked almost exactly has Harry Potter would at age sixteen. It was the disguise of a healthy person. Aside from the eight members of the La Push pack, Billy Black, Emily, one oncologist, and one nurse, no one knew that he had cancer. And he thoroughly intended to keep it that way. He didn't want to be the kid with cancer that everyone pitied and stared out.

That was why the teen was standing in front of the mirror making sure the wig of long dark hair was secure on his head and ensuring that his clothes hid the amount of weight he had lost since beginning his second round of chemotherapy. The long dark hair of the wig fell to just below the boy's shoulders.

Personally, Harry didn't like the length, but it was far easier for his look to appear natural with a longer-haired wig than a shorter-haired one. That was why he had used progressively longer wigs over the past eight months, starting with a wig that was only a half-inch longer than his hair was when he started to lose it almost eight months prior. As far as everyone was concerned, Jay Harris had just decided to aggressively straighten his hair at a salon in Port Angeles and let his hair grow.

After several long minutes, Harry was satisfied that he appeared to be the same Jay Harris who had been attending FHS for the past year and half. No sign that he was now bald and underweight. Grabbing a worn leather jacket on his way out the door, the boy set off for school.

He had barely reached the bottom of the steps that led up to his small, two bedroom home when he heard a call from off to his right. Harry turned to see Chief Swan scraping ice from the front of his patrol car.

"Morning, Jay!" the man called out. As was typical for the man, his shout was far louder than was necessary.

"Good morning, Chief," Harry said in response as he moved towards the edge of his yard.

"Billy said your uncle was heading down to California this week," Chief Swan said at a slightly more appropriate volume when Harry stopped near the property line that separated their two yards.

"Yes. He's meeting with some buyers in Sacramento."

"So it's just you again," the officer said with a bit of a disapproving edge to his voice.

"That's the advantage of living next to the chief of police. He doesn't have to worry about me while he's gone. Any wild parties or anything and you'd be the first to know."

"Please, the closest thing to a wild party you ever go to is a bonfire on the Reservation," Charlie said shaking his head as he turned his attention back to his ice-coated vehicle.

Harry gave the man a shrug before continuing on his way to school. He liked Charlie Swan, he really did. He just would have never rented the house that he did if he had known that he would have the chief of police as his next-door neighbor. It made things too complicated. Most other neighbors would have muttered disapprovingly at Jay Harris's absentee uncle. They might even gossip about how they were certain the boy was out raising hell at all hours of the night because he was left to his own devices so much. Charlie Swan, however, made it a point to try and pick a fight with Jay's uncle, Seymour Harris, every time he was home.

Charlie had only backed off in recent months because Billy Black was willing to lie to best friend about having struck up a friendship with Seymour. Billy was always telling Charlie about days he had spent fishing with Jay's uncle and how the two of them had tried to call Charlie to invite him but his phone was busy. The amount of time Charlie's teenage daughter spent on the Internet made that story completely believable.

Billy hated lying to Charlie, but he didn't see another option. After all, there was no Seymour Harris. While it was true that Charlie and several other residents of Forks had met an individual claiming to be Seymoure, they actually met Harry Potter while he was using a polyjuice potion to appear like Harry's real uncle, Vernon Dursley. In order for Seymour to appear as often as Charlie would like, Harry would be forced to use the potion several times a week and that would cause him to exhaust his supply of the potion in less than a month. Seymour would disappear completely, his nephew would be taken into the custody of child protective services, and then poor Harry Potter would be an even easier target for Victoria.

Honestly, it was sheer luck that had allowed Harry Potter to live as Jay Harris as long as he had. During one of his last nights at Hogwarts, the teen had decided to search the office of Professor Mad-Eye Moody. Of course, it wasn't actually Moody's office. Barty Crouch, Jr., a Deatheater, had used polyjuice potion to disguise himself as Moody in order to secure the Defense Against the Dark Arts professorship as part of an elaborate plot to restore his master to power and kill Harry. The villain was forced to brew polyjuice potion almost continuously throughout the school year in order to keep up the charade. Although half a cauldron of the potion remained when he was apprehended at the end of the year, the headmaster and other staff members had been too preoccupied in the 24 hours following Lord Voldemort's resurrection to seize all of the items from the man's office. They searched the office for clues about Lord Voldemort's plans and then sealed it off until they had time to properly deal with all of the items the man had left behind.

A locked door was no real challenge to Harry Potter. He had spent years sneaking into rooms that he was meant to say out of. It was less than a minute after entering the office that Harry found the cauldron of potion. All that was necessary to complete the potion work was to mix it with the hair of the person one desired to imitate.

If asked in that moment in time why he bottled and made off with the remaining potion, Harry wouldn't be able to answer. He just did it. In the long run, that decision had probably saved his life.

Harry was roused from his musings on his own uses of the polyjuice potion by the usual boisterous antics of his classmates in the school parking lot. The teen received the typical nods and waves from his classmates that were always accorded individuals who weren't considered total outcasts but weren't quite cool enough to hang with the likes of Mike Newton and Jessica Stanley.

While Harry did his best to slip through the crowd as quickly as possible, he couldn't help but notice Bella Swan, the chief's daughter, looking rather uncomfortable as Newton did his best to impress her with yet another one of his ridiculous displays of adolescent idiocy. Newton was trying to show how he could hop a hand railing, land on one of his friends' skateboards, and then perform some trick on the board. He managed to successfully hop the railing, but lost control of the board the moment his weight was on it. Mike Newton landed hard on his back and let out a light shriek. His efforts at impressing Bella were met with the roaring laughter of his cohorts rather than the adoration that he so desperately sought.

Harry entered the small building that held his first period class. The sympathetic cries of "Dude!" that Mike's friends were calling out were thankfully obscured once the door to the building was shut.

After taking off his winter coat and hanging it near the door, Harry took his seat towards the back of the room. He dug his essay on C. S. Lewis's "Why I am not a Pacifist" from his bag and then allowed himself to zone out for the last few minutes before class started.

Harry remembered how he had toyed with the thought of running away from the Dursley's long before he actually did it. It started off with just a random thought about how defenseless he was in the home of his aunt and uncle. He had realized one day while weeding the garden that it was entirely possible that a Deatheater could just waltz up in broad daylight, cast the Avada Kedavra at him, and leave without alerting any wizard to what was going on. Sure, Harry had a wand that he could duel with, but his encounter with Voldemort at the end of the Triwizard Tournament had proven that he was sorely outmatched by most adult wizard. If such an attack happened, he would be outgunned in a Muggle neighborhood with no one that he could really run to for help. That was why Harry had initially started to think about a possible escape plan should he ever need it.

The bespectacled boy knew he had one of the most important tools that he would need to make an escape: the polyjuice potion. And that tool would allow him to get the other thing he needed: money. Harry emptied one of his uncle's flasks and filled it with some of his pilfered polyjuice potion and some hair he was able to pull from the shears Vernon used to trim his mustache. A short while later, Vernon Dursley strolled out of Diagon Alley with a great deal of Muggle money taken from Harry Potter's Gringott's account.

Harry gathered the remaining items he would need to make a hasty exit and hid them in his room. With everything he needed to run away at his disposal, Harry felt much safer living at the Dursley residence. Well, safer from wizards anyway.

Things that summer continued as normal up until his cousin Dudley was attacked by a dementor of Azkaban. Harry had no choice but to break both the Statute of Secrecy and the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery to save his cousin from the dark creature's kiss. Harry and Dudley returned to Number 4 Privet Drive just in time to receive a letter informing Harry that, because of his actions, he had been expelled from Hogwarts and that Ministry of Magic officials were on the way to confiscate and destroy his wand.

Realizing that he would be trapped in the Muggle world forever without even a wand for protection, Harry did the only thing he could think of: he ran. Harry flew out of Surrey only moments after the Ministry's owl arrived with only the clothes he had on; his broomstick; and a bag containing his family album, his invisibility cloak, the Marauder's Map, the muggle money, the polyjuice potion, his uncle's passport, and one of his uncle's suits. His owl, Hedwig, flew behind him.

For all intents and purposes, Vernon Dursley arrived in New York City two days later with one checked bag before disappearing entirely. A traveling salesman named Seymour Harris rented a home in Forks, Washington and enrolled his previously homeschooled nephew, Jay Harris, at Forks High School a few days after Mr. Dursley disappeared into the crowds of New York.

Harry returned to the present once his classmates began to file into the room a short while later. He returned the polite greetings that several of his classmates sent his way, but otherwise opted to not engage in their socializing. It wasn't really expected that he would join in their gossiping; everyone knew that he preferred the company of the kids at the Reservation over his peers at FHS. Jay Harris and the students of FHS maintained a polite distance, not unlike the distance he shared with Emily.

Mrs. Sward, the English teacher, soon joined the students. She was a fairly squat woman with graying hair. She was also Harry's favorite teacher. She was always excited to greet her students in the morning and often said that, even after 20 years of teaching, she still firmly believed that each day at FHS was even better than the last. The woman's hair also provided Harry and his classmates with a bit of entertainment. Sward's hair was black with a few emerging streaks of gray. The amusing part was that she had the unfortunate tendency to erase the chalk board with her bare hand and then run that same hand through her messy hair. The result was that her hair became grayer and grayer as the class and day went on.

"Good morning, everyone!" she greeted them in her naturally sweet tone. "I am passing out a sign-up sheet for your final oral presentations. Please remember that you will not be able to change your time slot unless you find someone who is willing to trade with you," she explained succinctly as she handed an off-white piece paper to a girl in the front right-hand corner of the room.

Harry leaned over and began to rummage through his bag to find a pencil. The pocket of his backpack in which he usually kept his pencils had, he found, developed a hole that had spilled its contents into the main area of the bag. As a result, he was forced to dig through the rest of the bag in order to find a suitable writing utensil.

Harry's search distracted him enough that he didn't notice another student enter the room and hand a slip of paper to Mrs. Sward. The first indication Harry noticed that someone had entered the room was when a voice off to his right said, "When did _they_ come back to town?"

His fingers froze on his pencil and, for an unnaturally long period of time, Harry neither moved a muscle nor breathed. There was no way, he told himself. It was impossible that the 'they' could be the 'they' that always seemed to jump to his mind whenever he heard students at FHS speak in such quietly jealous tones.

"Class, it appears we have a new student joining us today. Or should I say an old classmate of yours that has returned?"

Harry slowly sat up and found his green eyes instantly drawn to the amber eyes of the immortal boy that he'd spent almost a year damning.

"Edward Cullen."

**A/N:** So, I got this chapter out much faster than I had intended. I got such a good reaction from the first chapter that I was really jazzed about writing today. Thank you all very much.

This chapter starts to answer the questions people had about why Harry was in Forks. In terms of timing, he ran away from Privet Drive after getting the letter from the Ministry telling him that he was expelled but before he got the letter saying that he shouldn't leave the house or surrender his wand. As far as he knows, he was _can't_ go back to Hogwarts.


	4. Chapter 4

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 4: The Cold**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Three – The Cold**

Edward Cullen was exactly as Harry remembered him. Unusual bronze hair, high cheek bones, full lips. He was even dressed in the same color scheme he always seemed to wear: light tans, beige, and white. If he were to be compared to a picture taken of him a year ago, there would be no one on the face of the planet that would be able to find the slightest change in his appearance. Then again, he was a marble-skinned immortal, so Harry shouldn't have expected any sort of drastic change like he himself had endured.

Harry also noted that Edward's eyes looked like molten gold and that there were no dark purple, bruise-like marks under his eyes. This told Harry that the vampire had had his fill of animal blood very recently.

The vampire made his way towards the back of the room where the one empty seat was. Inconveniently, that seat was immediately to Harry's right. Edward didn't need to watch where he was going. His inhuman senses and grace ensured that he wouldn't stumble or accidentally step on anyone's backpack. Instead, Edward was able to keep his eyes firmly planted on Harry Potter, AKA Jay Harris.

Harry wasn't able to tear his gaze away from the front of the room until Edward began moving down the aisle in his general direction. Harry looked abruptly down and, with his pencil firmly in hand, added his name on the sign-up sheet that had finally made its way back to him. By the time he had finished, Edward had taken the seat to his former flame's right.

Without lookup up at him, Harry handed the sheet of paper to Edward. The vampire's fingers made contact with Harry's as he wordlessly took the paper from the mortal. The feeling of the cold, stone-like fingers sent a chill up and down the green-eyed teen's spine and he was certain that Edward could hear the sound of his heart skipping a beat.

For the rest of the class period, Harry made it a point of paying an unusual amount of attention to the lecture. Although he could feel Edward's eyes on him, daring him to turn around and meet his gaze, Harry managed to resist.

Harry resisted looking over at his ex-boyfriend. He resisted allowing his mind to wander towards all of the questions racing through his mind about why Edward had returned to Forks after he had so callously told Harry that he would never see him again.

After what felt like an eternity, Mrs. Sward signaled the end of the period by telling the students to "skedaddle." Harry had been prepared to leave for last five minutes of the lecture and was out of his chair and heading towards the door the moment the teacher gave the word. He plucked his dark coat from its place on the wall as he passed but didn't stop to put it on; he didn't want to waste the precious second that it would have taken. Harry was determined to get out of the room as quickly as possible. Despite his best efforts, however, Edward Cullen was already standing by the door waiting for him.

Silently, Harry cursed the supernatural speed with which the vampire had reached the door.

Edward, ever the gentleman, opened and held the door for Harry. The younger boy didn't bother thank him or even acknowledge his presence. Harry simply walked through the door and made his way to his next class.

Harry was relieved a dozen or so steps later to realize that Edward didn't bother following him. Evidently, if the vampire was enrolled in trigonometry, he wasn't in the same period as Harry. Sadly, his sister, Alice, was.

Alice Cullen's familiar black spiky hair was visible to Harry as soon as he crossed the threshold into his next class's room. For the first time in a long while, Harry cursed being anti-social. There was at least one empty seat adjacent to his own in almost every one of his classes. He was positive that, as of today, either Edward or Alice would be occupying each of those chairs. Sure enough, Harry's prediction came true for the rest of the morning. A Cullen was in each of Harry's four classes before lunch. Edward now sat next to Harry in his first and fourth periods while Alice sat next to him in his second and third periods.

A routine developed quickly over the course of the morning. First, the Cullen enrolled in that period would be introduced to the class. It was a rather redundant exercise given that the Cullen family had moved away from Forks slightly less than a year prior. Unless Bella Swan was in the class, then there were no students who hadn't lived in Forks at the same time as the Cullens previously. After the introduction, the vampire would take a seat next to Harry and spend the rest of the period attempting to acquire eye contact. Any attempt by the Cullen to engage Harry was ignored. At the end of the period, Harry would do his best to escape before either Alice or Edward had the opportunity to try and engage him in a proper conversation.

By the time lunch rolled around, Harry had caught wind of a fair amount of gossip concerning himself and the Cullens. It was well-known throughout the school that Harry, in his alternate identity of Jay Harris, had been best friends with Edward and Alice Cullen. It was equally well-known that the Cullen family had up and left with no real warning over the previous winter break. According to the rumors, Alice hadn't taken to the time to even say good-bye to her best friend and no one in the family had bothered to contact him in the eleven months since.

For once, the rumor mill was accurate. Except for the nature of Harry and Edward's relationship with one another, which had been kept quiet, the rumors were true.

As Harry passed by the large glass windows of the lunch room, he saw that all five of the Cullen and Hale "children" had returned. Tall, statuesque Rosalie Hale. Brawny Emmett Cullen. Dour-looking Jasper Hale. The three of the supposedly older Cullens were seated with Alice Cullen at the corner table that had been theirs and theirs alone prior to their departure. Wherever the students that had taken over the table in their absence were, Harry neither knew nor cared.

Edward Cullen was seated by himself two tables away. The table that he was sitting at was the table that Edward and Harry had sat at for most of the fall semester of their sophomore year. During the months after the two had first struck up a tentative friendship, Harry and Edward would spend every lunch period questioning each other about their lives as wizard and vampire, respectively. It was sitting at that table across from Edward that Harry first suspected that he might be gay.

Seeing Edward sitting at the table, seemingly waiting for Harry arrive as he had done so many times before, caused Harry to lose his appetite completely. Instead, he headed to the far end of the courtyard outside of the lunch room and fished out his cellular phone.

Harry sat on the bench farthest from the lunchroom, but positioned himself so that he could keep and eye on the Cullens. The wizard knew that he had to contact the 'werewolf' pack immediately. If he didn't, he ran the risk of one the wolves running across the scent of one of the vampires and attacking before checking things out properly. Most of the pack was impulsive like that and the last thing that Harry needed at the moment was an all out brawl between the La Push pack and Cullen coven.

There were three options of who to call: Billy, Leah, and Sam. Billy would be the easiest to call because he was the most laid back of the three, but it would cause a delay in actually getting the message to the pack. Sam would be the best choice, but, Harry realized as he looked at the phone, he neither had Sam's number stored in his contacts list nor knew his number by heart. That only left temperamental Leah.

Gathering his courage and patience, Harry called his dear friend.

"Hello," came her voice from the phone.

"It's me," Harry said simply.

"Oh, hey. I didn't think you were allowed to use that thing at school. Decided to ditch or something?" Leah joked.

"No. The Cullens are back," said rushing to the point of the call.

"Back?" the werewolf questioned. Her good humor had been replaced by a very hard edge.

"Back, as in I've got classes with two of them and there are three more in the lunchroom right now. And if all of the 'kids' are here, it's a pretty good bet that Carlisle and Esme are as well."

There was a moment of silence that seemed to stretch for minutes before Leah said anything else. "I'm coming to get you. Right now."

"You can't. Skipping class is one of those things that will draw unwanted attention to my home life."

Leah grumbled something unintelligible in response.

"It's not like I'm in any danger. For me, having them here is just a bit uncomfortable. Besides," Harry continued, "you need to make sure the rest of the pack knows that they're back. If Jacob or one of the others were to catch their scent . . ." he trailed off.

"I'll let Sam know. He'll probably be waiting for the others when they get out of school, anyway. I'm going to be waiting for you at the edge of campus with my dad's truck. You come straight to me once classes are over for the day. No way in hell am I leaving you with that bloodsucking asshole."

The finality in Leah's voice told him that there was no arguing with her about that. Not that he particularly wanted to; he had been dreading the end of the school day. He was certain that Edward, Alice, and possibly even their siblings would use that opportunity corner Harry to talk. It was odd, given how they had left. But the way that Alice and Edward seemed so keen on making a connection with him throughout the morning, he was sure that a talk was coming. He wouldn't mind knowing why they were back, but that was as far as he wanted things to go. They burned the bridge that led to him on their way out of town last December.

"I'll see you then," Harry said as a goodbye.

By the time Harry finished his call and stowed his phone away, he could see students emerging from the lunchroom to head to the first of their afternoon classes. It was at this point that Harry's stomach decided to start growling. It was going to be along afternoon.

Harry had fifth period biology with Edward. The vampire wasn't seated next to Harry for a change. Instead, he was seated next to Bella Swan. Edward didn't look too pleased about the situation, either. In fact, it looked like he was considering disemboweling the poor girl. Although Harry wasn't exactly her friend, he didn't wish any specific harm upon her.

Edward's unusual shift in demeanor caused Harry to spend the majority of the hour focused towards the middle of the room where Edward and Bella were sitting rather than on the lesson. Focusing on Edward was the last thing Harry wanted to do, but he found himself doing so anyway. Something was definitely amiss, he reasoned. It wasn't just that Edward looked like he was in pain the whole time. Once class was over, the immortal raced from the room rather than attempting to interact with Harry as he had done in their previous classes together. The mystery deepened a short while later.

His sixth period, Harry believed, would be blissfully Cullen-free. Despite the fact that Harry was an office aide that hour, it wasn't. Edward spent the better part of half an hour in the office attempting to convince the office administrator to change his schedule to allow him to take something other than biology during fifth period. He even asked to be an office aid during fifth period and thereby decrease Harry's workload during sixth period. His attempts were all shot down.

Harry's last period of the day was study hall. He breathed a sigh of relief when he had seen both Edward and Alice heading in the opposite direction from his classroom. Harry entered the room, hung up his coat, and then turned around to find himself face-to-face with Emmett Cullen.

"Hiya, Jay!" the largest of the vampires bellowed out Harry's alias.

Harry said a clipped hello to Emmett before heading to his seat, his hopes of having at least one hour free of the Cullens having been shot down. Emmett was on his tail the entire way to his seat and, as Edward and Alice had done all morning, took an adjacent seat.

Ignoring Emmett Cullen was a much harder feat than ignoring his siblings. While Alice prided herself on her good manners and Edward had always been a bit quiet, Emmett was loud and outspoken. He made jokes throughout the entire period that earned him harsh glares from Mr. Jefferson, but never once a reprimand. Harry did his best remain cold and detached, but found that he really had no choice but to engage Emmett in conversation at least a little. Still, Harry kept to one-word answers to any questions he was posed. Everything from school to his social life was just "fine."

As soon as they were dismissed for the day, Harry did what he had done that morning: he went directly for his coat and left the room without missing a beat. By the time he reached the parking lot, he had four Cullens on his tail; only Rosalie was absent.

"Please talk to me," Edward pleaded while following Harry as they crossed the parking lot. It was the first full sentence Edward had had the chance to say to the mortal in almost a year.

"There's nothing to talk about," was Harry monotone reply.

"Please," Edward asked again, this time reaching forward and gently wrapping his ice-cold fingers around Harry's right wrist.

Three things happened in rapid succession in the next instant. A dark mass slammed into Edward with great force, Edward released his grip on Harry's wrist, and Harry fell over onto the icy pavement. Harry let out a muffled cry as he landed hard on his left shoulder. Relieved that the sudden fall hadn't knocked his wig off, he used his right arm to prop himself up so that he could see what was going on.

Leah had, evidently, jumped out of her still-running truck and raced across the parking lot to tackle Edward the moment he touched Harry. Emmett and Rosalie, the latter of which had made a rather sudden appearance, were attempting to pull the two apart. Leah was shouting curse words at Edward the entire time, some of which Harry had only heard in movies.

"Are you okay?" came Alice's soft and concerned voice from above Harry. He turned his head to find that Alice and her mate, Jasper Hale, had moved to one side of him.

"I think so. I just jammed my shoulder when I fell."

Jasper reached down to help him up. Harry was in the process of reaching his arm out to Jasper when a pair of warm hands suddenly appeared under his arms and lifted him upright. It was Jacob Black.

Harry was more than a little surprised to see Jacob there. He shouldn't have had time to get to Forks High School from the school on the Reservation in the short amount of time that had passed since classes ended for the day. It was then that Harry noticed that Jacob was only wearing a pair of shorts, despite the below-freezing temperatures. Jacob's being half-naked told Harry that the younger teen had likely transformed into his large wolf form and sprinted to FHS the first chance he got. The only clothing he would have had with him when he turned back into his human form would have been the pair of shorts he always tied to his leg before becoming a wolf. If he had forgotten the shorts, Harry probably would have been picked up by a stark naked Jacob.

A moment after being pulled up, Harry found himself being directed through the gaggle of onlooking students and towards Leah's truck. Harry was horribly embarrassed by the spectacle and wasn't really paying attention to what was going on around him.

Still, he was fairly certain he heard Leah say, "You come near him again, I'll tear you're fucking head off."

**A/N: **I've gotten a PM asking about ages and classes. I am operating under the same age cutoff system that all of the schools I've ever attended have used, which is that between August 1 and July 31, a student is supposed to turn the age of 6 plus the grade number. So a junior should turn 17 between August 1 and July 31 (11th grade plus six). It is November at the moment. Harry was born on July 31 and Bella was born on September 13. They are both juniors, so Harry is 16 and Bella is 17.

For everyone else, I am basing their ages off of how much older or younger they were than Bella in the books. Therefore, Leah is 20; Sam Uley is 19; Jared is 17; Jacob, Quil, Embry, and Paul are all 15, and Seth is 13. Keep in mind that, in the books, 'werewolves' mature much faster than normal humans, so they are all physically in their mid-20s. Stephanie Meyer said that Jacob looks about 26.


	5. Chapter 5

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 5: The Pack**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Four – The Pack**

The drive to the Black home was very heated. Jacob and Leah were arguing the entire trip. Jacob was furious with the female werewolf for her reckless actions. He didn't criticize her for tackling Edward, only for doing so in a manner that had caused Harry to get hurt.

Harry tried to intervene once or twice, protesting that he had bruised his shoulder at worst; however, Jacob argued that Harry could have been more severely injured. He could have been cut when he fell to the ice-coated pavement and bled in front of the vampires. Jacob was angry at Leah for what he considered her having been careless with Harry's wellbeing.

By the time the trio arrived at Jacob's house, the rest of the pack was waiting for them. When Harry and his two friends entered, they found Sam pacing back and forth in the front of the living room while the remaining five werewolves watched his movements carefully. Their heads were moving back and forth like they were watching a ping pong match.

"The Cullens are back?" Sam practically shouted at Harry the moment he crossed the threshold.

"Yes," he replied simply as he made his way inside after only a moment's hesitation.

"Why?" the pack leader questioned next.

"I don't know," Harry answered honestly as he shrugged off his jacket and laid it on the arm of the couch next to Seth Clearwater. "I didn't really talk to them."

"Why not? You're their favorite little entrée, aren't you?" Paul spat.

It was a toss-up between Leah and Paul as to who was the most hot-headed member of the pack. Paul, however, was the most spiteful member of the pack, hands-down. Because of Harry's previous involvement with the Cullen coven, Paul had been firmly against Harry being allowed to associate with any of the 'werewolves,' let alone be allowed to attend their secret Meetings. He had only mellowed in recent months as Harry's friendship with Leah and Jacob cemented. It seemed that the return of the Cullens was once again painting Harry in a bad light in his eyes, as though their mere presence made Harry less trustworthy.

"Shut it, Paul!" Leah and Jacob shouted simultaneously.

Quil and Embry laughed a little at Paul being yelled out. Jared, on the other hand, seemed a little put out and came to his friend's defense.

"I think Paul has a point. Harry is the only reason that they'd come back," Jared stated.

"So not true," Seth chimed in. "They were here, like, over a hundred years ago when they made the treaty with the last pack. Then they came back three years ago. Harry didn't live here either time, so there must be some other reason they want to live in Forks. Well, I guess not 'live' in Forks, but you get the idea."

"The sun doesn't shine much," Billy Black explained as he rolled his way into the living room from the hall that led to the bedrooms. "Vampire skin sparkles in the sun, so they can't go out when the sun is shining. They like Forks because it is one of the rainiest places in the U.S.," he gruffly said to his houseguests.

Harry, of course, already knew that tidbit of information from the time he had spent with the Cullen family the previous year. He also knew that the lack of sunshine probably wasn't the reason why they had returned. Edward had said that this family wouldn't return for over a hundred years. Not until everyone who knew them was gone. Something must have happened that compelled them to return sooner.

"Maybe they're here because of Victoria," Harry suggested.

"Why would they come because of her?" Sam asked.

"I'm not sure. They once told me about an Italian coven that policed their kind and doled out punishments to those that had risked exposure of their kind to normal humans. Victoria is risking exposure by going to the lengths she is to get revenge for the mate that the Cullens destroyed. Maybe the Italians decided it was the Cullens' responsibility to deal with Victoria."

"I don't know much about the Cullens, but I think Paul is closer to the mark," Leah said. Harry was surprised, particularly with the way Leah had shouted at Paul only a minute before. "I don't like how he said it, but I think he was right. The Cullens came back for you. Why else would Edward be so determined to talk to you?"

"He was?" Sam asked sharply.

Harry released a long suffering sigh before explaining to Sam how Edward had tried to talk to him outside of the school that afternoon. He decided not to mention the confrontation between Leah and Edward. Although Sam would know about that through the pack mentality later, Harry didn't see any good coming from discussing it now.

"So they're interested in talking to you," Sam mused. "I guess that makes you the perfect go-between."

"Excuse me?" Harry questioned, raising his voice for the first time in a Meeting of the pack.

"You want to send Harry into the midst of a bunch of leeches! After they almost killed him last year!" Jacob shouted at his pack leader.

Sam sent a look at Jacob that told everyone in the room that didn't like Jacob questioning him before turning his attention back towards Harry. "I know you don't want to deal with them, but I can't risk anyone in the pack getting close to the mind-reader. Because of our pack mentality, Edward Cullen could learn just about anything that any member of the pack knows just by being getting near one of us. You, on the other hand . . ." he trailed off.

"He can't read my mind so he won't learn anything from me without me telling him directly," Harry completed Sam's thought.

"Exactly. Plus, they already want to talk to you. Might as well use that to our advantage."

Harry wasn't particularly interested in dealing with the Cullens, but he was far more uneasy with the way Sam was talking about them. He used the word "advantage" like Edward was their enemy rather than Victoria.

"And if one of them loses it and attacks him again? You gonna take responsibility for that, Sam?" Jacob said, getting up in Sam's face.

"Yeah, I will," Sam said bluntly, not backing down.

"Leah and I'll take care of Harry," Seth enthusiastically volunteered. "We can watch over him just out of range of the blood-sucker's powers."

"Sounds like a plan," Leah said in a voice that told Harry that she was far less enthusiastic about the idea than her brother was.

"How can you go along with his?" Jacob demanded, turning from Sam to Leah quickly.

"Because," she began, "we don't really have a choice. We've got an army of enemy vampires on our doorstep and a coven of vampires that we've got a treaty with has just arrived in town. We need to know why they are back. We need to know whose side they are on, if they are on either side at all. Someone needs to talk to them and Harry is the only real option we have."

Harry hated to admit it, but Sam and Leah were right. He was going to have to talk to Cullens.

The group spent all of the afternoon and the better part of the evening working out exactly what Harry was going to say to the Cullens. It wasn't that the pack wanted to pick his words, but they had a number of ground rules they were going to have to set if the treaty was going to remain in tact. The majority of the pack hadn't transformed until after the Cullens had left town and so had no experience dealing with the so-called 'vegetarian' vampires directly.

It was well after sunset when Leah and Jacob took Harry home. By that time, he was totally drained mentally, physically, and emotionally.

When they arrived at his home, Harry just sat in the truck for a while. The thought of going home, of being alone with his thoughts, was scary. It had taken him so long to crawl out of the depression he was in when Edward had left him that the idea of dwelling on Edward without a friend or two nearby was awful.

"Problem?" Leah eventually asked.

"No, I just don't want to get out. It's cold out there. I much prefer it in here with my two space heaters." Technically, it was a half-truth and not a lie. Harry didn't want to leave the truck that, thanks to the massive amount of heat that was naturally radiated by the bodies of shapeshifters, was toasty warm; however, that wasn't the main reason for his trepidation.

Leah clearly wasn't convinced. Jacob's expression was unreadable, but Harry was pretty confident that the 15-year-old wasn't convinced either.

After a few more moments, Harry opened the truck's door and started to slide out. He had no more than gotten the door completely opened and started to shift his weight when Jacob's arm shot out and latched on to his. "Wait," he commanded in a firm yet quiet voice.

"What?" Harry asked in surprise.

"They've been here," Leah answered for Jacob.

"Which 'they'?"

"Not sure. I can definitely tell that at least one vampire has been here though. The sickly sweet stench is unmistakable," Jacob said as he wrinkled his nose.

"Edward Cullen was here," Leah said. "I got a good whiff of him earlier today. There was another one though. Kinda similar, so I'm guessing its one of the ones pretending to be his kin," she explained.

Harry looked back at the house. "So I'm not in any danger, right?"

"I wouldn't say that," Jacob muttered darkly.

"No, I don't think you're in any immediate danger. But Jacob and I are going to check it out, just to be safe," Leah assured.

Jacob and Leah escorted Harry to the door. After unlocking the front door and entering, Harry was left standing in the small living room of his home while Jacob searched the interior of the house and Leah walked the perimeter of the property.

Harry waited silently as Jacob checked the rest of the first floor—the kitchen, the room that supposedly belonged to his uncle, the bathroom, and the laundry room. After he was certain that there was no threat on the first floor, he left his friend alone so that he could examine the second floor—Harry's bedroom and bathroom.

"They didn't come inside," Jacob said as walked down the narrow stairs to return to Harry's side.

"Good," Harry replied. "I would have hated to have the locks repaired. Again."

"They've definitely been on the porch and the roof. And recently," Leah said as she re-entered the house.

"The roof?" Jacob asked. "What kind of stalker do you have?"

"Probably just searching for an unlocked window. You know, a way inside that didn't involve actually breaking in. It would look weird if they were waiting on my front porch all day. Charlie would have undoubtedly noticed and said something," Harry covered quickly. He would have felt very uncomfortable telling Jacob that Edward sneaked in through the window of his bedroom every night that they were dating.

After an uncomfortable moment of silence, Jacob decided to say his farewell to Harry for the night. "Well . . . goodnight, I guess."

"You guess?" Harry asked jokingly.

"You know what I mean," Jacob said as he clapped Harry on the shoulder.

"Ow!" Harry said.

Jacob, realizing that he had clapped the shoulder that had been hurt earlier that day, gave a sheepish apology to Harry before leaving.

Leah was waiting by the front door when Jacob exited the little home. She kept he place and watched as Jacob made for her truck. She then turned to Harry. "I know this is hard."

"It sucks," Harry corrected.

"Yeah, but it is exactly what you've been hoping for. I used to dream that Sam would wake up one day and decide that Emily wasn't the one for him. That the whole imprinting thing would turn out to be something in his head. Something fake that he could just get over. I hoped that he'd come back to me."

Silence met Leah's statement.

"If you need anything, just call, okay?" Leah said earnestly.

"Thanks, Leah," Harry said gratefully.

Leah's demeanor shifted a moment later and she was in business mode once again. "Make sure to have the leeches meet you here to talk tomorrow at six. Seth and I will be in the woods behind your house in case you need us. When you're done, make sure to signal for us."

"Thanks for the clarification. We only went over it a few hundred times today, so I was a little worried that I'd forget," Harry said with a laugh.

Leah gave Harry was mock glare and, after one last reassuring smile, left.

Harry closed and locked the front door after his friends had left and made his way up stairs. Once in his room he made sure every window was locked and that all of the drapes were securely drawn. He was completely alone and he was going to stay that way.


	6. Chapter 6

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 6: The Coven**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Five – The Coven**

Harry Potter spent all of Tuesday dreading his meeting with the Cullens. He wanted to know why they had returned to Forks after almost a full year's absence but, at the same time, he was terrified of the answer. Did they return because of Victoria? Because of him? Or was there some different force all together than had compelled their return?

Unlike Monday, the Cullens were already at school when Harry arrived. Edward was leaning against his silver Volvo while his four siblings were standing in a semi-circle near a red Corvette that, if Harry remembered correctly, belonged to Rosalie. Edward spotted Harry the moment he reached the parking lot but, surprisingly, made no attempt to approach him. Perhaps, Harry reasoned, he had decided that after the previous day's disaster, Edward had decided to give Harry some space and time to adjust.

Regardless, Harry had resolved to continue ignoring the presence of the Cullens until after school. He planned to approach Edward after classes so that he wouldn't have to deal with any of the Cullens believing that he intended to do anything more than act as the go-between for the La Push pack.

Except for few other minor details, such as all of the gossip about the previous day's confrontation and the fact that the Cullens were not being introduced at the start of every class, Tuesday morning progressed almost exactly as Monday morning had. Harry ignored Edward's presence in first and fourth periods and Alice's presence in second and third periods. Harry spent the lunch period by himself in the courtyard once again, although this time he had had known that he wouldn't be buying his lunch and so had brought a sandwich from home rather than starve.

Edward was absent from biology, a fact that intensified Harry's curiosity about the vampire's apparent dislike for Bella Swan. What, he wondered, could Bella Swan have done that made such a horrid first impression on Edward that he would seemingly skip class to avoid her?

None of the Cullens made an appearance during sixth period when Harry was working in the office. Finally, as had happened on Monday, Harry spent much of his time in study hall providing terse answers and polite nods to all of Emmett Cullen's various inquiries and jokes.

The end of the school day came much faster than it had on Monday. When it did, Harry gathered as much courage as he could muster and proceeded as confidently as possible to Edward's Volvo. Edward was clearly surprised when he saw Harry heading his direction.

It was very unusual to catch Edward Cullen by surprise. He could read minds and his sister, Alice, could see the future. If a person was near Edward, he would know what he or she planned to do as soon as he or she did. If Edward was near Alice, he would know everything that she had foreseen. The result was that Edward was hardly ever surprised, something that Harry had often speculated—when he had speculated about Edward Cullen once upon a time—was the source of his near-perpetual boredom.

Harry was one of the few things in the world that could surprise Edward. One reason was because the vampire couldn't understand Harry's thoughts. Rather than the usual clear stream of conscious thoughts and inner monologue that Edward heard from everyone else, Harry's mind was like two identical voices arguing with each other at the speed of thought. The words were too distorted; Edward just couldn't make anything out. Another reason was that Alice had never had a single vision about Harry. It was as if he just didn't exist in her world. Harry Potter was a total mystery to Edward, and that is what had first caught the vampire's attention at the start of the previous school year.

"I'm sorry," were the first awkward words out of Edward's mouth when Harry reached him.

"Excuse me?" Harry asked, clearly confused.

"About your arm. About yesterday. About every-"

"They like to keep a close eye on me. Try and keep that in mind in the future," Harry interrupted, sounding far less confident than he intended.

"I will."

"They want me to deliver a message to your family. The whole family. Would it be possible for you all to come to my house this evening at six o'clock?"

"Yes," was Edward's quick reply.

"Alright. Good. I'll see you then," Harry said in an awkward and disjointed manner. Without another word, he turned on his heel and started to head home past the various students who had stopped to watch and see if there was going to be another confrontation like the day before.

Harry did his best to keep his mind focused on other things during the afternoon. He tried to do his homework, but found himself reading the same paragraph over and over again without really knowing what he was reading. He tried to cook something for dinner, but managed to break half a dozen eggs. He even tried to clean, but ended up polishing an end table to the point that the polish left an oily layer on the tabletop that he ended up having to whip off with a rag.

Harry was almost relieved when six o'clock rolled around. That relief vanished when he heard a knock at the door. It was showtime.

Harry opened the door and found that, as requested, all seven Cullens were standing on his porch. Dr. Carlisle Cullen was standing at the front of the group with his usual serene expression. His wife, Esme, was standing next to him with a large grin on her face, as though she was a mother greeting a child after a trip. Behind the 'parents' of the Cullen family was Edward. Although his face was devoid of expression, Harry could easily recognize the hope and excitement in his eyes that had for so long occupied his thoughts and dreams. Behind Edward, the remaining four vampires were standing in pairs: Jasper with his wife, Alice, and then Rosalie with her husband, Emmett.

"Please, come in," Harry said by way of a welcome.

A moment later, the entire group was situated about the living room. Harry sat in a large, overstuffed recliner that had been added to the home since the last time any of the Cullens had been then there. Unbeknownst to them, Harry had purchased it after he began his first round of chemotherapy. It served as a decent place to sleep on nights when he needed to remain fairly upright or when he was too sick or too tired to climb the stairs to his room.

The Cullens didn't sit. They remained standing in their typical yet unnaturally stiff and still manner. Harry was familiar with what they were, so there was no need for them to attempt to act human in front of him.

"We were very pleased to receive you invitation, Harry," Esme said warmly after Harry was seated. Esme had always been a very kind and caring woman and so Harry's next words hurt him to say almost as much as they undoubtedly hurt her to hear.

"It wasn't my idea. The La Push pack needs to know why you're here and they don't trust Edward being within earshot."

"And they don't trust any of us to be near you, apparently, since two of them are in the woods behind your house," Jasper said.

"Spotted them already?" Harry asked casually.

"More like smelled them. Which was quite a feat considering how much you and your house reek of mutt. Honestly, we have to hold our collective breaths around you to avoid the stench," Rosalie responded in her usual combative way.

Harry had to suppress a smile at her statement and the furious glares that her statement earned from the rest of the family.

"I didn't see the need, but, under the circumstances, you can't be too careful," Harry said, steering the conversation back towards his original inquiry. "The pack needs to know why you've returned to in Forks."

"I never should have left," Edward answered earnestly.

"We decided," Carlisle cut in, "that we made a mistake in leaving in the first place. We're trying to rectify that mistake."

"So it has nothing to do with Victoria?" Harry asked slowly, confusion apparent in the question.

"Victoria?" Edward demanded, alarm seeping into his voice.

"You don't know?"

"Know what?" Edward asked, answering Harry's question with a question of his own.

For a moment, Harry had no idea what to say. He had considered the possibility that Victoria may have nothing to do with the reason why the Cullens had returned to Forks, but he never considered the possibility that they were completely oblivious to her threat. Surely, he had thought, the disappearances in Seattle would have caught their attention. Jasper had told Harry once before about the great vampire wars that were fought in Mexico and the southern United States many years before. He had said that their kind kept a look out for unusual rashes of disappearances because they were one of the leading indicators of someone creating a vampiric army. Many vampires used such disappearance as a sign to stay clear of the area while the Italians had used them as a sign that they needed to intervene in order to protect the secret of their existence.

Should he tell the Cullens what they had walked into? Or should he beg and plead with them to run? To leave Forks and never look back in the hopes that they would be unnoticed by Victoria?

Harry's period of stunned silence was relatively short and would have gone easily unnoticed by a human. To the vampires, however, it was painfully obvious that Harry was debating whether or not to tell them something of great importance.

"Please," Edward all but begged, "tell us."

Harry's mouth began moving of its own accord, as though he was powerless to resist Edward's request. "It started last March. Laurent—you remember him, the third member of Victoria's coven—attacked me."

"But we thought that Laurent went to Alaska to join the Denali," Esme said.

The Denali were a coven of vampire that, like the Cullens, fed exclusively on animals. Laurent had expressed an interest in such a lifestyle and had seemingly abandoned his own coven for the Denali once Victoria's mate, James, began hunting Harry for sport.

"He was, but Victoria ordered him to scout the area for her. To see if you had truly left. To see if it was safe for her to come and exact her revenge for the death of her mate. Laurent, however, had other plans. He decided to cheat on his diet and go ahead and kill me himself and then lie to Victoria about it. He managed to re-break my arm in the same place James had," Harry said, unconsciously rubbing his right arm near the wrist, "before the La Push pack arrived and destroyed him.

"Victoria arrived a few weeks later. Despite her best efforts, she wasn't able to get around the pack to get to me. After she crossed the border onto the reservation to try and get at me, the pack swore to hunt her down and destroy her wherever she went. She thought the whole thing was a game and got careless. Jacob managed to break a part of her face off. She collected the pieces and was able to put herself back together, but she had decided that the werewolves were too dangerous of a threat. One of her recruits that the pack managed to disable and then destroy a while back said that she's decided to kill them and all of their relatives so that no more of their kind would be able to hunt her.

"Victoria has spent months making an army of vampires. That's what the disappearances in Seattle that have been in the news recently are all about. Victoria is recruiting. We don't know how many she has because some of the disappearances have to be food rather than recruits. We aren't fairing particularly well. The pack has managed to killed two of them, three if you count Laurent, but there could be dozens more."

The room was almost completely silent after Harry finished his explanation. The only sound that could be heard was the ticking of a clock on the wall behind Harry, unless you counted his heartbeat. And the vampires did. Finally, after a few moments of reflection, Emmett let lose a series of expletives that rivaled those that Leah had unleashed on Edward the day before.

After Emmett was finished, Harry continued. "You should probably leave town."

"What?" Alice demanded, her perfectly sculpted eyebrows furrowing.

"You just walked into the middle of a warzone. If Victoria finds out you're here, she's going to add you to her 'Must Die' list. If you go now, you've got a chance of getting out before she even realizes you're here."

"Unlikely," Jasper said.

"We're staying," Edward said, his voice strong and confident. "There is no chance that I'll leave you here like this."

"Talk some sense into him," Harry said to Carlisle and Esme, his voice sounding almost desperate. Although the logical part of his brain told him that it was a tactical advantage to have the Cullens' assistance, there was a stronger part of him that wanted them out of harm's way. And out of his way.

Carlisle looked at his wife and then each of the other members of his family one at a time. After looking at each of them and receiving some sort of silent signal, he turned to Harry and said, "We're staying. We helped create this mess when we killed James. It is our responsibility to help protect you, Forks, and La Push."

Harry sighed in defeat and slumped against the back of his comfortable chair.

"What can we do to help?" Alice asked.

Harry looked at the vampire that had once been his best friend. She looked as determined as Edward sounded. He knew there was no way in hell he was going to be able to convince them to leave for safety.

"Sam said that the treaty is still in effect. You stay off the Reservation. The wolves will be patrolling the reservation and, whenever they feel it is necessary, the area around my house. You stay on your side and everyone should get along just fine," he started. "The pack will be communicating to you through me. If they need you, they'll call me and they expect you'll do the same if you need them. If you can't get me, call Billy Black. His number is listed. If they ever set up a face-to-face meeting, Edward can't attend. They won't allow a mind reader that close to them."

"That's fair," Carlisle said solemnly. Jasper looked like he wanted to object.

"I guess that's it then," Harry said as he stood up. "I have to let the pack know what's going on."

"Yes, and we need to work out our own schedule for how we're going to go about looking after our side of the line," Carlisle said.

With that, the little meeting broke up. As the vampires morosely filed out of the little house, Edward stopped momentarily to say goodbye to Harry. After he stepped over the threshold and onto the front porch, he turned to look at Harry and asked, "Will you ever let me explain myself?"

Harry regarded Edward for a moment before answering as honestly as he could. "I'm not sure. But when I am, you'll be the first to know."

Edward reluctantly turned and followed his family. With a last look at the man that Harry had once considered the love of his life, he closed the front door. He stood in his silent and lonely house for a few moments before going to the back door and signaling Leah and Seth Clearwater to come to the house.

His life, Harry realized, had just become significantly more complicated.


	7. Chapter 7

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 7: Leah**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Six – Leah**

A week had passed since the Cullen family had returned to Forks and Harry found himself adjusting fairly well. For the most part, the family seemed to be giving Harry his space. The only interaction Harry had with any of them was the conversation he was forced to make with Emmett Cullen in study hall. There were, however, a few minor adjustments that he had to make, such as where he took his lunch.

The hardest adjustment that Harry had to make involved his chemotherapy. Harry was unsure of whether or not the vampires were aware of either his cancer or his weekly treatments. If they were aware, they did nothing to indicate that they knew. Carlisle Cullen was a doctor and so would have had access to his medical records, but there was no reason for him to have gone looking for them. The supernatural eyesight that the Cullens possessed would have ensured that they knew he was wearing a wig, but they had no reason to suspect that he was bald underneath rather than just going for a certain look. It was even possible that the vampires could smell the effects of the treatments; however, Rosalie had said that they held their breath around him because of the strong stench of werewolf.

It was a toss-up as to whether or not the Cullens knew what Harry was going through. If they didn't know, he fully intended to keep it that way. Regardless, he didn't want any unwanted visitors intruding upon his treatments. Sadly, this meant going in for his treatments without either Leah or Jacob because their much more potent scent would alert Carlisle the moment they entered the hospital. Harry's slightly softer scent was much more likely to go unnoticed or, if nothing else, chalked up to having originating from any one of the dozens of individuals from the Reservation who had regular contact with the pack.

So Harry had gone to the hospital alone. The lack of company during his treatment the previous Friday had caused Harry's blood pressure to spike dangerously high. The doctor had strongly urged Harry to either bring something to read or get his friends to start coming with him again. The latter, of course, wasn't an option.

Monday afternoon found Harry and Leah walking arm-in-arm on the cliffs overlooking First Beach. The way that the pair frequently walked around latched on to one another had led more than one citizen of Forks to theorize that they were a couple. Such theories had also caused some of the town biddies to shake their heads in disapproval over the supposed relationsihp.

The temperature was hovering just above freezing and the wind carried a sharp edge, but Leah's presence and the sun, which was shining for a change, kept Harry comfortable.

"Stop moping," Leah said.

"I'm not moping," Harry protested.

"Yes you are. I can always tell. I'm brilliant and observant like that," Leah joked.

This was the side of Leah that was reserved for Harry alone. To her packmates and everyone else in the world, Leah was snarky and bitter. In fact, Harry had made some unflattering mental comparisons to Professor Severus Snape when he'd first met the shapeshifter. Leah and Harry had bonded, however, over their respective heartaches. Not long after, Leah began to show her softer side to Harry. The wizard had wondered on a number of occasions if this was how she had been around Sam when the two were dating before the imprinting.

"It's not moping. Not really."

"Then what is it? You wanna cry? Because I hate it when people cry. It makes me feel uncomfortable when people cry in front of me."

"No," Harry said with a chuckle, "I don't need to cry. I haven't cried since that night in the woods."

"Not at all?" Leah asked, clearly surprised.

"I didn't cry when Laurent broke my arm. I didn't cry when I was diagnosed with cancer. And I sure as hell am not going to cry because Edward bloody Cullen has decided to grace us with his presence."

"So it's not moping and it's not you being on the verge of crying. What is it then?"

The pair stopped walking along their path and turned to stare out over the cliffs.

"I'm pissed off," Harry said resolutely.

"Pissed off? Because they left or because they came back?"

"Both. I mean, how _dare_ they? Edward dumped me because he got bored and then they left. I didn't even get so much as a goodbye. They packed up their things in the middle of the night, robbed me, and then fled," Harry said, anger clearly seeping into his voice.

"Robbed you? You never mentioned that before."

"They took everything I had that was connected to them. All the presents they got me for Christmas. The CD Edward made for me. The program I got from when Edward took me to 'The Phantom of the Opera.' Even the little slip of pictures I got from a booth at an amusement park that Edward, Alice, and I went to. They just erased some of the best months of my life. That wasn't just breaking things off with me. That was cruel. It was . . . petty."

Leah was more than a bit surprised at Harry's sudden anger. She honestly couldn't remember ever seeing the teen that mad.

"Other than Edward, they all left without a word and then none of them even had the decency to write me a letter or send a postcard. I mean, how hypocritical is that? Alice pestered me for full week about how important it was that I send word back to England to let my school friends know that I was okay. And I did."

"You never told me that either," Leah pointed out as her brow furrowed. "I thought that you hadn't had any contact with England since you left."

"We used re-mailing services. A bunch of them. I put my letter in an envelope without a return address and a service in Seattle put it in a bigger envelope and mailed it to a re-mailing service in Texas. They sent it to another who sent it to another. It was like a dozen services, the last of which was in New York. The service in New York sent it on to the parents of one of my friends, Hermione Granger," Harry explained rather dismissively.

"So why'd you do it? Why'd you send the letter?" Leah asked curiously.

"Because Alice told me that it was what a good person would do. She told me that I couldn't let them continue to worry about me. She should have followed her own advice."

"You're forgetting something, Harry. They aren't people."

Harry honestly didn't know whether Leah's statement was meant to be serious or a joke.

"You could try hitting something. That might help relieve some of your pent-up anger. Of course, I would advise against hitting one of the Cullens because you'd break your hand. Same thing goes for hitting Jake or Seth. Maybe you could try hitting that Mike Newton guy you've mentioned," Leah suggested. "You dislike him, don't you?"

"I don't dislike him, I just don't like him. There's a difference," Harry reasoned as he looped his arm back around Leah's and pulled her away from the cliff so that they could continue their walk. "Besides, the last thing I need is more gossip."

"My little scene with the leech last week still causing you problems?"

"More embarrassment than problems. No one knows quite what to think about it. The latest rumor is that Alice cheated on Jasper with me last year and that I'm with you now. Everyone seems to think that Edward was trying to get me to break up with you and go back out with Alice when you arrived," Harry said while resisting the urge to laugh at Leah's horrified expression.

"Us? Together? Maybe it's time they find out you're gay."

"Edward and I were 'friends' in order to avoid the hell associated with being an openly gay high school student."

"It would be better than everyone thinking I'm a cradle-robber," Leah grumbled.

Harry laughed out loud at that.

"What's so funny?" Jacob Black asked as he joined Leah and Harry, seemingly out of nowhere.

"We were just talking about Leah defiling me," Harry said as if he was talking about the weather.

"What!" Jacob cried.

Harry and Leah both laughed at Jacob's horrified expression.

"We were talking about the school's reaction to our little incident with the Cullens last week," Leah clarified once her snickering was under control.

"Oh, that makes much more sense," Jacob said as he let out a relieved sigh. "And is less likely to scar me for the rest of my life."

Harry looped his free arm around one of Jacob's and began to pull the male werewolf along.

"So how do I fit into the story?" Jacob asked while wagging his eyebrows suggestively.

"They don't know what to think about you. They just keep calling you the half-naked guy," Harry explained.

"'The half-naked guy'? I guess they could say worse things about me," Jacob said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Oh, the girls have been pretty complimentary about you."

The trio continued to joke around and enjoy the day for several hours. It was well after sunset when they finished their walk and returned to Jacob's house.

Sam was waiting for them and was none too pleased that Jacob and Leah had decided to go for a long walk with Harry rather than go out on patrol. This led to another tense stare-down between Jacob and Sam. Leah decided to pick that awkward moment to pull Harry out of the house and drive him home.

"One of these days I just know that Sam is going to rear back and hit him," Harry said shaking his head as Leah's truck crossed the reservation's border. He looked over at Leah to find that she wasn't paying attention to him. Instead, she was looking in the rearview mirror.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Nothing," she replied unconvincingly.

"Even _I_ can tell that was a lie. And I've been lied to by, like, everyone," the wizard said. He momentarily remembered several of the times that people, like Barty Crouch, Jr., had managed to pull one over on him.

Leah glanced at Harry and then back into the rearview mirror. "There was a car parked near the border with its lights off. I think it is one of the Cullens."

"Are they babysitting me now?" Harry asked in an insulted tone. "What kind of car was it?"

"I don't know car models," she said. "But I think it was silver."

Harry turned his head to look out of the back window of the truck. Despite the fact that the landscape was well-lit by the moon shining high in the cloudless sky, Harry couldn't see any cars behind them. That didn't eliminate the possibility that the car was beyond Harry's poor range of vision but still within the range of Leah's enhanced vision.

He kept the fact that Edward drove a silver Volvo to himself.

Leah was soon pulling the truck pulled into the mostly unused driveway at Harry's house and, after performing her customary sweep of the house for intruders, left the dark-haired boy to his own devices for the remainder of the evening.

The teen considered having something for dinner, but the thought of food turned his stomach. Instead, he climbed up the stairs to his bedroom. After making sure that all of the windows were locked and covered, Harry went to his closet. He carefully pulled off his wig and placed it on a stand next to several other wigs of shorter lengths. They were the wigs that Harry had worn in succession over the past several months as he transitioned towards one whose length best hid its nature.

Harry replaced the wig with a fleece sleeping cap, changed into a pair a pajamas, and prepared for bed. Once ready, he climbed into bed and flipped off the lamp.

For a moment, he was certain that he saw a figure silhouetted against the drapes by the light of the moon. That certainty comforted Harry somehow.


	8. Chapter 8

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 8: Emmett**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Seven – Emmett**

Harry had been told by the oncologist that the 48 hours immediately following his treatments would be the hardest. This may have made him one of the only teens in American who dreaded the weekends. Sadly though, as his condition continued to progress, more and more of the weekdays were becoming just as bad as the weekends.

Today was a bad day. And Harry knew it as soon as he woke up. He was feverish and nauseous. Every muscle in his body was weak and his joints ached terribly.

Anyone with the slightest bit of common sense would have remained home in bed. Harry, unfortunately, had a check-up scheduled for that afternoon. He didn't want to risk having to use one of his last doses of polyjuice potion in order to explain away why the teen was absent from school but seen walking around town in the afternoon. Being accused of being truant would draw far more attention than he wanted. Harry decided to just suffer through the day at school.

Harry had become rather gifted in recent months at pretending to be healthy; however, he knew that his act wasn't working today. By the third time someone asked him if he was feeling ill, he had resigned himself to the fact that the Cullens must have caught on that he was under the weather. He saw concerned topaz eyes staring at him whenever he dared to steal a glance at either Edward or Alice. Harry was nevertheless determined to play his symptoms off as nothing more than a minor bug.

By the time Harry reached study hall at the end of the day, he was sapped of all strength. He folded his arms on the top of his desk and rested his head. Less than a minute later, Emmett Cullen decided to interrupt his rest.

"If you don't want to get landed with a year's worth of detention, you should sit up right now," the largest of the vampires whispered.

Although he didn't want to, Harry sat up. The teacher's gaze was fixed on Harry and it looked like he very much wanted to yell at the teen for lazing about during study hall.

"Man, you should have stayed home today. You look like hell," Emmett said.

"Gee, thanks," Harry replied.

"I get that you don't want to talk to me or my brother or, well, any of my family, but I bet it will make this last class go by a lot fast if you do," Emmett suggested slyly.

Harry surveyed the room. Study hall had never been a very demanding period. In fact, the only real rule was that you should at least look like you're doing something worthwhile. If pretending to work while talking to Emmett would make Harry forget how awful he felt and help him to avoid detention, he was willing to give it a shot.

"So what would like to talk about?" Harry asked as if he didn't already know the answer.

A huge, triumphant grin split Emmett's face as he turned his desk sideways. He then stood and repositioned Harry's desk—with Harry still sitting in it—so that the two desks were now facing each other.

"Mr. Cullen?" the teacher asked.

"We're just working on some trig homework," Emmett replied to the teacher's not-completely-articulated question before looking back at Harry. "Right, Jay?"

"Right," Harry replied morosely.

Emmett returned to his seat while Harry opened his notebook so that they would look like they were indeed working on trigonometry homework rather than chatting.

"Let's see, what do I want to talk about?" Emmett mused aloud. "How about you tell me how long you plan to give everyone the cold shoulder?" he asked, lowering his voice so that only Harry could hear him.

Harry let out an irritated sigh when he heard Emmett announce the topic he had been expecting. He tilted his head to the side and propped it up with one hand. Harry then used his other hand to begin doodling in his notebook while he too spoke in a hushed tone. "How about you tell me why you all left instead?"

"How about you answer my question first?" Emmett countered.

Silence stretched out between the pair as they waited each other out. After a few moments, Harry had an idea. "Alright, I'll answer yours and then you'll answer mine. It's the same deal I made Edward last year: answer for answer. Deal?"

"Deal. Now answer my question. I asked first, after all."

"I don't know," Harry answered bluntly. "Now it's your turn."

"No way. 'I don't know' isn't an answer."

"It's the only one I have to give. I haven't decided when or even if I'm going to start talking to Edward again."

"Why not?" Emmett questioned.

"You can ask that when it's your turn. Why did you leave? I still don't buy that Edward getting bored with me was sufficient grounds for your entire family to uproot itself."

"Edward was never bored with you. He was scared for you."

"Scared?" Harry said in surprise.

"After Jasper lost control and attacked you at Christmas, Edward decided that it was too dangerous for you to be around vampires all the time. He decided that we should all leave rather than risk you getting hurt. Or worse. He thought that it would give you a chance at a normal life."

"Bullshit," Harry snapped. His curse was a bit louder than the rest of their conversation and caused a few students at nearby desks to look up in surprise. Fortunately, the teacher either didn't hear or didn't care.

"You cursed. I mean, you actually cursed American-style. I never thought I'd see the day."

Harry lowered his voice once more. "When he dumped me, Edward said everything that he knew would hurt me. Then he went about erasing our entire time together. If he just wanted to keep me safe, he had a dozen easier ways to do it."

"Ever consider that he might have wanted you to hate him?" Emmett asked.

Harry just analyzed Emmett's seemingly sincere expression for a moment before asking, "Is that your next question?"

Emmett shook his head. "How did you end up with the wolves?"

"The first time I saw them was when they saved me from Laurent. I knew that they were intelligent creatures from the way worked: some of them formed a protective line in front of me while the others hunted down and destroyed Laurent. It was clear that they weren't just 'big wolves' like the rumors suggested. After that, I started to search for them in my free time. After Laurent was dead and Victoria returned to the area, a group of hikers disappeared. Chief Swan thought it was the wolves and so started putting together a hunting party to find and kill them. I made finding them first my number one priority. I owed them my life, after all.

"They knew I was looking for them and so decided to try and scare me off. They confronted me in their wolf forms and growled at me and stuff. I wasn't all that afraid of them. They'd protected me before and they had had several opportunities to kill me if they wanted to. I was also reasonably sure that they could understand me, so I warned them about the hunting party. They just sort of looked at me and left. It was one of those 'cute puppy head tilt' moments."

Emmett snorted at that.

"I didn't give up trying to find out exactly what they were, though. Ironically, it was one of the stories that Edward had told me months before about why he couldn't go to First Beach that gave me the answer. You know, the story about forming a treaty with the Quileute elders to stay off their land. I remembered him calling to the elders 'the old mutts.' I did a little research on the subject and found out there are legends about members of their tribe turning into wolves to defend their lands and people against 'the Cold Ones.' Everything seemed to fall into place at that point. Especially when I realized that the wolves matched the La Push Gang perfectly."

"The La Push Gang?" Emmett questioned.

"Yeah. Jake and the others had started hanging out together. I wouldn't have noticed except that Charlie mentioned it a time or two and I had started to pay attention to the Reservation after making the legend connection. Anyway, there were the same number of people in the gang as the pack. And their relative size to one another and fur and hair color matched. It all just fit. So the next time I managed to find them in the woods, I told them what I knew about what and who they were. I also told them I knew about Victoria. They, somewhat reluctantly, decided to work with me."

Emmett waited until the story was over before decided to comment. "Rosalie thinks you're a drama addict who just replaced vampires with werewolves."

Harry bristled at the comment before responding. "Well I think all that bleach has finally seeped into Rosalie's brain."

Emmett let out a booming laugh that caught the attention of everyone in the room. Mr. Jefferson scowled at him, but, as usual, did nothing. Harry couldn't help but laugh a little about that.

"My turn," Harry said. "Did your family really only come back because you decided it was a mistake to leave?"

"Edward regretted it the moment we got out of town. We all did. It was a mistake and we're trying to fix it," was all Emmett said in response. "Why are you willing to talk to me like this but not and not Edward? Or Alice?"

"I don't have any classes with them in which I'm this desperate for a distraction," Harry joked.

Emmett smiled at Harry's response, but still pressed the question. "Seriously."

"It's not the same," Harry said.

"You know you're gonna have to explain that."

Harry thought about it for a moment and tried to word his answer as accurately as possible. "You and I weren't close. We were friends, but not great friends. I wasn't close with you, Jasper, Rosalie, or Carlisle. The others though . . . Edward and I were together, Alice was my best friend, and Esme always talked about how I was part of the family. The way they left. With Edward being so cruel and Alice and Esme not saying goodbye. And then they way they didn't call or write or anything. It was like I was worthless. Trash. It just plain hurt."

"I'm sorry," Emmett said with more tender emotion than Harry had ever heard from him.

"My turn again," Harry replied, eager to change the subject. "What is the deal with Edward and Bella Swan?"

"Jealous?" Emmett asked. He wagged his eyebrows up and down in a very Jacob-like way.

"He looks like he's going to rip her face off at any moment. So no," the wizard bluntly replied.

"It's kinda hard to explain. Did Edward ever explain _la tua cantante_ to you?"

"No."

"It's Italian. It means 'your singer.' The Volturi came up with the term, I think."

"The Voturi," Harry muttered as he searched his memories for any reference to the familiar-sounding name. "They are the Italian coven that polices all vampires to make sure they don't expose your kind, right?"

"Right. They like to think of themselves as our royal family. They use that phrase to describe someone whose blood is especially desirable to an individual vampire. To Edward, Bella Swan's blood is the absolute best smelling blood in the world. Its heroine to an addict. Being anywhere near her is like shoving a white hot poker down his throat and telling him the only way to get relief is to drink her blood."

"So it hurts?" Harry asked aghast.

"Pretty badly. Resisting someone whose blood sings to you is incredibly painful. I've failed to resist it twice before." Emmett said the last with shame in his voice. "Edward only has the one class with her, but he ended up seated directly next to her, so it's especially hard to ignore. Honestly, he would have left town if he wasn't so hell bent on, well, you know."

And Harry did know. Edward was staying in town and suffering like he was for Harry. To protect Harry from Victoria and, it seemed, to get him back.

Harry wasn't allowed to dwell on that thought for very long because Emmett quickly asked his next question.

"So, what's with the wig?" Emmett asked. His tone had changed from being very solemn to being very cheerful.

It came as a relief to Harry that Emmett sounded so light-hearted when asking about the wig. That strongly indicated that he didn't suspect the reason why Harry wore it. Conveniently, it was in the moment moment that Harry was about to respond that the teacher dismissed the students for the day.

"I wanted to go for a new look without having to manage my uncontrollable, curly hair," Harry lied while he gathered his things up. He left Emmett to put the desks back in their proper places and walked out of the classroom and onto the snowy grounds of the school.

As Harry made his way off of school property, he realized that Emmett had been right: their chat had helped his last period to go by pretty fast. He had managed to go almost the full period without thinking about his illness or how awful he felt. Unfortunately, it was now time to return to reality.

Once Harry was off of the school's grounds, he turned in the direction of the hospital instead of the direction of his home.


	9. Chapter 9

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 9: Boundaries**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Eight – Boundaries **

Harry's arm felt like a pin cushion for two days after his check-up. Dr. Sheldon had decided to run an intensive battery of tests on the teen in order to see what kind of effect, if any, the latest round of chemotheraphy was having on his cancer. Despite having had more needle sticks in the past several months than he could count, Harry was still incredibly squeamish about such tests.

His arm was, thankfully, only tender; there was no bruising. Despite that bit of good luck, Harry was still very protective of his left arm and avoided doing much with it.

Harry had spent Thursday night doing homework in anticipation of his weekend. Between cancer, Victoria, and the return of the Cullen family, Harry was struggling enough in his classes as it was. He certainly didn't need to miss a pile of homework because he was throwing up for two days straight. Harry followed the same routine he had used since he started his treatments: he would do all of the work that he could anticipate on Thursday night and plan on doing anything assigned unexpectedly on Sunday night when he was starting to feel better. The routine would work so long as Harry's period of near-incapacitation following chemo was limited to about 48 hours.

He had never been the most studious student, but doing so much work in advance was a necessity.

Around midnight—when he was finished with his work—the non-practicing wizard retired to his room. Exhausted, he barely had enough energy to change clothes and crawl under the covers before falling asleep.

He couldn't have been asleep for more than a couple of minutes when he was awoken by a musical tone. It took several moments for the fog to roll back from his mind enough for him to realize that the sound was his cell phone ringing on his nightstand. Harry picked up his black-framed glasses and put them on before reaching for the phone. As he reached for his cell, he heard a loud banging sound from the back door. The sudden sound caused him to jerk slightly and drop his phone to the floor.

Harry retrieved the clamshell phone from where it landed and then flipped it open without bothering to check the ID. "H-Hello?"

"Don't you answer your damn door?" Leah's voice demanded.

"Leah?"

"No, it's the Ghost of Christmas Past," she said calmly. "Of course it's Leah!" she then shouted.

"Is that you downstairs?"

"Yes, I'm at the back door. Try to keep up."

"Sorry," the teen mumbled.

"Get your ass down here, we've got trouble."

"Trouble?" Harry asked suddenly alert. He got out of bed and began slipping on a pair of house shoes.

"The leeches didn't stay to their side of the line and now Jacob and Edward are about to tear each other's heads off."

"What!" Harry cried out in alarm, his voice cracking. "I'll be down in just a second."

After folding his phone closed, Harry slipped on and tied his robe before racing to his closest. He pulled off his nightcap and quickly replaced it with his wig. He spent only a moment adjusting the headpiece before he began to race down the stairs and out of his home as quickly as he could manage.

To his shock and embarrassment, Leah was standing on his darkened back stoop stark naked. Harry almost fell over when he suddenly turned back around towards the interior of his house so as not to look directly at the naked 20-year-old.

"No time for modesty, Harry. Come on," Leah said as she grabbed hold of Harry's right arm and began to drag him away towards the woods behind his house. Harry was just barely able to reach out and pull his back door closed before he was dragged off.

Harry carefully kept his eyes away from Leah's naked body as she pulled him along. As soon as the pair reached the edge of the woods, Leah released Harry and began to morph into her wolf form. After he was sure she had finished the transformation, Harry turned around to look at Leah. Although smaller than her packmates, Leah was still significantly larger than a normal wolf. Where Sam Uley was as tall as a horse, Leah was more the size of a pony. She was large enough that Harry could ride on her back.

The teen straddled the gray wolf's back and held tightly to her fur. Once he was fairly secure in his position, Leah took off through the woods at a speed far beyond what any but the fastest of animals could run. The darkness of the night coupled with the speed at which Leah was running made it impossible for the boy to keep track of where they were at any given moment. Harry hunkered down low against her back to prevent the racing wind and random tree branches from snatching the wig from his head.

After several minutes of running, Leah slowed down before stopping completely. She allowed Harry time to roll off of her back before proceeding to walk through the woods at a substantially slower pace. Harry took a moment to straighten himself out before following his friend. The pair walked for only a minute before the woods gave way to a large open area. As they neared the open space, Harry was able to hear loud growling and shouting. Another moment later and Harry was able to see the standoff between the vampire coven and shapeshifter pack.

Because Leah and Harry emerged from the woods on the Forks side of the border, the Cullens had their backs to them. Edward was standing at the front of the group shouting and occasionally growling inhumanly at the werewolves. He was flanked by Jasper and Emmett, both of whom seemed to be there as much to back their brother up as to hold him back.

Rosalie stood off to the left side of her husband and brothers in a crouch, ready to spring into any fight that might erupt. Alice was standing calmly behind Rosalie with a visibly upset Esme. Carlisle was off to the right of boys, clearly trying to calm the situation.

The werewolves were on the other side of the line. Jacob was growly fiercely from his position opposite of Edward. As a wolf, his hair was russet brown in color and longer and shaggier than his packmates'. The only wolf taller than Jacob was Sam Uley.

There were two wolves on either side of Jacob and their actions and demeanors mirrored those of Jasper and Emmett. One was Embry Call who, in his wolf form, had gray fur with black spots. When Leah had first told Harry that a fight was brewing between Edward and Jacob, he knew that Embry would be in the thick of it because he typically acted as Jacob's wingman. On Jacob's left side, opposite Jasper, was Seth. Harry was shocked by the fierce expression that the normally carefree boy wore as a sandy-colored wolf. Paul, who was the third largest of the wolves, was standing opposite of Rosalie. Harry vaguely remembered the hot-headed teen mentioning once or twice that he thought that the 'tall blonde' was likely the fiercest of the vampires. Paul was flanked on one side by a chocolate brown wolf—Quil—and on the other by a wolf with lighter brown hair—Jared.

Sam was standing opposite of Carlisle. Although the black wolf seemed to be calmer than his packmates, this in no way diminished his imposing appearance.

Leah kept herself between Harry and everyone else as she led him around the conflict to stand straddling the border near Carlisle and Sam.

"Whoa guys, calm down," Harry said with as much force as he could. It was as if no one even heard what he said. "What happened? What has everyone so riled up?" he questioned Carlisle a moment later.

The coven leader answered without even looking at him. "We were all chasing after Victoria. She was dancing back and forth across the border, making it hard for us to pursue her without crossing the line. It was like she knew right were to land. Eventually, Emmett dove at her and ended up crossing the line. The big one there," he said motioning towards Jacob, "took that as a breach of the treaty and attacked. Jasper and Edward managed to pull Emmett back to our side of the line before the fight got out of hand. By that time, however, Victoria had escaped. It looked like things were going to calm down for moment, but then Edward and the big one started at each other out of the blue."

Harry frowned deeply at Carlisle's story. Jacob had a bit of a temper, but this was something totally out of character.

"C'mon, Jake," Harry said as he started to walk along the border between the two groups. "You know Emmett didn't hurt anything. He only took a few steps across the line while trying to get at a dangerous enemy. No harm no foul, right?"

The teen was watching Jacob intently as he moved along. The long-haired wolf was still growling menacingly at Edward and his brothers. Despite his fierce appearance, Harry wasn't afraid. This was Jacob, after all. His best friend. Well, best male friend.

"Just taking a couple steps over the border while pursuing Victoria isn't such a bad thing, Jake. Think about it. If she was attacking someone from La Push just on the other side of the border, would you want Emmett to just stand over there," he motioned to the Forks side of the line, "and do nothing? Just watch as someone was murdered because trying to intervene would mean taking a couple steps into your territory? I don't think so," he rationalized.

Now standing directly between Edward and Jacob, Harry looked into the intelligent dark eyes of the wolf. "This really wasn't any different. He was trying to save lives. He was-"

Whatever Harry intended to say, it was cut off by an angry barking sound from Jacob. He had never made such a sound at Harry before. The suddenness and ferocity of the sound caused Harry to involuntarily jerk back away from Jacob. In an instant, Harry found himself bent partially over and facing Jasper. It took a moment for his brain to catch up with what had happened.

When Jacob made his barking sound, Edward had reached forward and grabbed hold of Harry by the waist. The vampire had then twisted the human around and placed himself between Harry and any harm the werewolf's sudden actions might cause. The end result was that Harry was pulled flush against Edward's cold, hard chest while the vampire held Harry in a strong and protective embrace with his back facing Jacob.

Harry craned his neck to look back at the werewolf. After blowing some hair out of his face, Harry was surprised to find his view obstructed by Emmett. The largest of vampires had, evidently, also acted to protect Harry in that split second. Emmett had moved himself between Edward and Jacob and was now snarling at the wolf while teetering dangerously close to the invisible border.

Jacob's face became visible to Harry a second or two later when the wolf stretched his neck to see around the brawny vampire in an obvious attempt to check on the wizard. Reading the facial expressions of a wolf was very difficult, but reading Jacob Black's eyes was something that was almost second nature to Harry Potter by now. There was shame and fear there. Jacob was clearly upset at having snapped at Harry. Perhaps more upset by the fact that two vampires had felt it necessary to shield Harry from him.

Jacob started to whimper a bit and made to go around Emmett. The vampire moved so that he was still standing between Jacob and where Edward was holding Harry. Edward tightened his embrace around Harry protectively.

"I'm alright," Harry protested lightly. "Please, Edward, let me go."

Edward hesitated for a moment before releasing his hold on Harry. Once the teen was allowed to stand up properly, he slowly started moving towards Jacob with his arms raised with the palms out.

"I'm alright, Jacob. No harm done."

In quick order, Jacob transformed into his human form and began to spout apologies at Harry as fast as he could. "Oh God, Harry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it! I was just trying to argue with you and it came out like that. I didn't-"

The werewolf's stream of apologies was cut off by a squeak from Harry as he twirled around so that his back faced Jacob. "Gah! Jacob!"

"What?" the 15-year-old questioned in very alarmed voice.

"Can you try apologizing to me when you're a bit less naked? First Leah and then you, I can only take so much gratuitous nudity in one night!"

There was a long pause before Jacob responded. "The, uh, pants I usually tie to me leg got shredded in the fight," he explained sheepishly.

The exchange caused a round of laughter from most of the on-lookers, both vampire and shape-shifter alike. The humor seemed to help calm the situation down at last.

"Serves you right, you big lug," Harry said crossing his arms. "Look, you apologized, I'm accepting it. We're cool. Okay?"

"Okay, we're cool," Jacob responded half-heatedly.

"Treaty's still intact and nobody is going to dismember anyone tonight. We can all go home now, right?" asked the group at large. "Because it's been a really long day and I'm barely going to be able to stay awake through classes as it is."

There was no verbal response, but Harry felt a cold wet nose touch his hand a moment later. He looked down to see that Jacob had returned to his wolf form and was, apparently, volunteering to take the boy back home. Everyone quietly dispersed at that point. The wolves turned and ran off toward La Push while the vampires, except for Edward and Emmett, took to the woods. The brothers seemed to be watching Harry and Jacob intently.

When Harry realized that Edward and Emmett were waiting to make sure that he was okay, he left Jacob's side and walked towards the pair. "Thank you . . . for looking out for me."

"No prob," Emmett said in his usual casual way.

"I will always look out for you," Edward said seriously.

"Well, uh, good night," was all that Harry seemed to be able to say in response to Edward's declaration.

Harry walked back over to Jacob, who had been watching the interaction very carefully. The wolf looked as though he feared the vampires would turn on the human at any moment, despite their recent display of chivalry. It was funny, Harry mused, that everyone seemed to be worried about everyone else attacking Harry.

With a smile, Harry climbed onto his friends back. As soon as he was on, they headed off towards home.


	10. Chapter 10

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 10: Jacob**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Nine – Jacob**

Harry invited Jacob into his home after they arrived. The shaggy wolf looked warily at the Swan residence next door. After he was satisfied that there was no one awake that would see him walk into Harry's house in the dead of night while totally naked, he transformed back into his human form and followed Harry through the door.

Once inside the home, Harry was careful to keep his back to the naked teen. He removed his robe and held it out for Jacob to take. "Please put it on. I've had more than enough nudity for one night," he pleaded.

"No way, it stinks of leech," the werewolf protested.

"You have to wear something and none of my regular clothes will fit you."

"Then I'll just leave," Jacob said hotly.

"Take the damn robe," Harry ordered in as commanding a voice as he could muster in the middle of the night.

Jacob reached out and took the robe while grumbling mutinously. It was too small for him to wear comfortably, but it at least covered what needed to be covered. Once it was on, the werewolf walked past Harry and into the living room. "Jeez, I thought you would be pretty comfortable around naked guys," Jacob muttered.

"What's that supposed to be mean?" Harry asked as he put a kettle on.

"Well, I mean, you and Edward. You two, you know, right?" Jacob stumbled awkwardly.

Harry's face turned beat red at the question. "No!" he denied quickly. "Edward and I never . . . did _that_."

"Oh, well, good," Jacob said. He tried to play it off cool, but it was clear that he was relieved.

"What made you think that?" Harry asked from his position by the stove.

"It just seemed like something the two of you would have done. I mean, Charlie used to tell my dad how you would stay over at the Cullens' house for days at a time when your uncle was out of town. He made it off like you didn't want to be left alone. Since you don't really have an uncle and all, I just figured you were sleeping over there to be with _him_." Jacob said the word 'him' with venom.

"No, we didn't. I've never. I don't think he's ever. Oh, you know what I mean," Harry stammered, still horribly embarrassed about the topic.

"I guess that makes more sense. I doubt you'd have survived it anyway," Jacob said bitterly.

The pair was quiet for a fairly long stretch of time after Jacob's last statement. They were quiet so long, in fact, that neither of them said anything until after Harry had finished preparing a cup of instant coffee for Jacob and a cup of tea for himself.

"So . . . you wanna talk about it?" Harry asked finally.

"The sex thing?" Jacob asked, refusing to meet Harry's eyes.

"No, not 'the sex thing.' Carlisle said that it looked like things were going to calm down after Emmett got back on his side of the line. Then you and Edward got all riled up. I figure that you must have thought something that set him off."

"Sure, blame me. Not the freaking blooducker." Jacob said before falling silent for the better part of a minute. "I did think something to piss him off," he finally admitted quietly before looking up to meet Harry's gaze. "But don't worry, I didn't think anything about you being sick. None of the pack did," he assured Harry.

"I appreciate that, but it isn't what I'm concerned about right now. An all-out fight between the pack and the coven would have casualties on both sides and, frankly, we can't afford to lose any fighters right now. Besides, I've grown rather attached to you and would hate to see Emmett and Edward rip your head off to use as a soccer ball."

"Like they could," the shapeshifter disagreed hotly.

Harry did his best imitation of Leah's glare and proceeded to stare Jacob down. It took a bit, but it worked.

"I thought about how awful things were for you after they left," Jacob confessed.

"You _what_?"

"We weren't friends then, but I saw you around. You were so lost and upset. And then, after that filthy leech broke your arm last March, you just wandered around the woods looking for the pack even though you knew that it could be really dangerous for you. You were being hunted by a vicious killer but you kept straying into her hunting grounds. You acted like your life didn't matter. You walked right towards your own death and you didn't even blink. I wanted that stupid leech to see how badly he hurt you."

"You-" Harry started. He stammered and blustered for a moment, too angry to properly form words. "How could you do that?"

"That loser had it coming!" Jacob defended, slamming his fist on the kitchen table causing the two mugs to splash tea and coffee onto the faux wood surface.

"I'm not talking about what you did to him, I'm talking about me! How could you do that to me?"

"What?" Jacob deflated, clearly dumbfounded.

"Do you have any idea how pathetic that was of me? How embarrassed I am of the way I acted? I hate that I just . . . . just fell to pieces. I hate the idea of anyone knowing how stupid and weak I was back then, let alone the person that triggered it."

"I'm . . . sorry?" Jacob said.

"You damn well better be," Harry snapped.

"I just thought, you know, if he saw how much he hurt you that he'd leave you alone."

"Leave me alone? He's done nothing but 'leave me alone.' Except for Emmett, the lot of them have been giving me plenty of space," Harry explained.

Jacob shook his head like he was disappointed in Harry. "You don't get it, do you? That's just an act. You think he isn't really watching your every move? I can smell him all over the outside of this house. He's pretending to be all understanding and crap by giving you space. He's manipulating you so that you'll eventually go crawling back to him. And you're falling for it hook, line, and sinker."

Harry was left speechless at Jacob's statement.

"You see, he's using that brother of his to tell you how awful he feels so that you'll make the first move. So that you'll run back to him and try to make him feel better. He's playing you. They all are. Playing on how compassionate and nice you are. They know you don't want anyone to suffer and they're using that to try and trick you into going back to him. They're using your compassionate nature to take you from us."

"'Take you from us,'?" Harry repeated questioningly.

Jacob opened and closed his mouth several times like a fish before he was able to clarify his statement. "You won't be able to be with _him_ and be my best friend at the same time. Vampires and werewolves are mortal enemies. He's gonna get you to dump all of your friends for him and his damn coven. Do you have any idea what that's gonna do to me? To the pack? To yourself? Leah's gonna be so angry and bitter again. Seth looks up to you so much that it'll just kill him. I'm gonna lose the best friend I've ever had. And you. He's just gonna break you up all over again, once you get old or after he's gotten what he wants from you."

Whatever Harry thought Jacob was going to say, that wasn't it. "Jacob, all I'm doing is talking to Emmett when I have to during study hall. Other than when I'm doing things for the pack, I haven't spoken to any of the rest of them."

"Yet," Jacob amended harshly. "But you're thinking about it. Leah told me about your chat the other day. And I saw that you spent almost an hour talking with the big one in class the other day. It was certainly more than just talking to him when you have to."

"You saw that? How?"

"Someone has to keep an eye on you. Make sure you don't end up on the dinner menu," Jacob said. "The leeches are trying to wear you down."

"I admit, I've given the idea of talking to them a bit of thought," Harry began.

"See," Jacob said in a voice that screamed 'I told you so.'

"Let me finish. I've been thinking about it, but I haven't come to any sort of a decision. You're right that getting back together with Edward—if that's even what he wants—would be disastrous. But there's a growing part of me that would really like to talk to him and the others. To settle things so that I don't have it hanging over my head for the rest of my life."

"Don't you see? You're too nice. You go and talk to him and he'll beg for your forgiveness. You'll give it to him and then he'll be back in your life. From there, it'll be pretty damn easy for him to lie his way back into your heart. He's got a century of practice at lying to people and he's gonna use it to convince you that he wants you back and that he'll never hurt you again."

"Really, you want to compare notes on lying? How many people do you lie to on a daily basis about what you're doing at night? How often does Billy have to lie to Chief Swan to cover for me or the pack? I can't even use my real name most of the time," Harry argued back.

"Do you even listen to yourself? You're so hell-bent on defending him that you're basically arguing that its okay for him to lie to you."

"I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that you can't say he's a bad guy because he has experience at lying. Sometimes it's just necessary." Harry wiped his face with his hands for a minute before taking a sip of his now-cold tea. "Jacob, I would never be with someone who would force me to stop being your friend."

"But you're willing to be with someone that would hurt you. That could be that cruel to you. And you just expect me stand by and let you make that mistake all over again."

"You're jumping to conclusions, Jacob. Let me spell it out for you: I am not getting back together with Edward. I am just considering letting him have his say so that I can move on with my life."

"You keep telling yourself that," Jacob muttered darkly.

"I won't get back together with him, Jacob. I know a lot more now than I did then. There is no way we could be together."

"And why's that?"

"Because," Harry began, "I know now that he can't bite me without breaking the treaty and triggering a war between his coven and your pack. Any relationship with him would have a time limit because either I'll get too old for him to stay with or he'll bite me and spark a war. I won't let him break the treaty like that and I won't start something that can only end in pain. Not to mention my British deadline is looming on the horizon."

Jacob was quiet for a bit after that. "I don't believe you," he said finally. "I think you're still in love with the asshole but you don't want to admit it. I think that you're going to end up talking him pretty soon. _But_ . . . I'm gonna try to trust you do the right thing and not get yourself into something that will get yourself hurt."

"Thank you."

"So, am I right?"

"I think I am going to talk to him at some point. I just don't know when," Harry said. "You want to know something funny?"

"What?" Jacob asked.

"I think you just inadvertently convinced me to have a talk with my ex," Harry said with mock cheerfulness.

"Yeah, that's pretty damn funny," Jacob said in a tone that told Harry that it really wasn't funny at all.

The conversation turned to lighter topics from there. Before Harry knew it, the sun was coming up. It was Friday morning and he had an exhausting day of school and chemotherapy to look forward too.

Harry had to call Leah and beg her to drive over with some clothes for Jacob so that he wouldn't have to choose between going home in some of Harry's clothes, none of which would fit him; going home naked; or risk transforming into a large wolf in Harry's back yard and traveling through the woods during the day. Leah insisted on making Jacob beg before she agreed.

By the time Leah had picked up Jacob and Harry was ready for school, it was almost 7:30. The 16-year-old was almost out the door when his cell phone rang. The Caller ID listed the caller as 'Forks General.'

Harry flipped open the phone. "Hello?"

"Mr. Harris, this is doctor Sheldon," the oncologist said on the other end of the line in his usual gruff and matter-of-fact tone. "I have the results from your latest round of tests and I would like to discuss them with you. In person."

"Well, I'm just about to leave for school. Can I talk to you about them this afternoon right before my appointment?"

"I'm afraid, Mr. Harris, that it would better if talked sooner than that."


	11. Chapter 11

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 11: Resolve**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_**by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Ten – Resolve**

Dr. Sheldon's long explanation of the test results had faded into a dull buzz. After the first sentence or two, Harry became very detached from the conversation. He simply sat in one of the chairs opposite of the oncologist's desk and stared out the window at a tree. A phrase or two of what the doctor said managed to permeate the wizard's brain every couple of minutes.

"How long?" he asked, interrupting the doctor midsentence.

Dr. Sheldon hesitated for a moment before answering. "Weeks. A month at the outside."

"A month?" Harry asked, his voice quivering as he turned to look at his physician.

Dr. Sheldon couldn't bear to look at the teen's stricken face, and so looked down at the files spread out in front of him. "That is if we continue your current treatment regimen," Dr. Sheldon added grimly. The old man licked his chapped lips as he kept his eyes downcast.

"I don't understand. I thought the last set of tests said that I was making progress."

"You were," Dr. Sheldon began. "But I'm afraid that the cancer isn't as isolated anymore. It has since moved throughout the rest of your lymphatic system. Aggressively." The oncologist steepled his fingers before he continued. "There is still a chance that we can force the cancer back into remission."

"But not a very good one," Harry surmised from the doctor's tone of voice.

"No. I'd put the number somewhere around 4%. We could double that number if we tried something more aggressive."

"More aggressive than what we're already trying?" Harry asked as if he couldn't imagine a treatment regimen more aggressive than the chemotherapy he had already endured for months. On an intellectual level, he knew there were stronger drugs. And that the drugs could be taken more often. But the idea being put through something worse than what he was already going through was mind-boggling.

"Yes. We can try a different chemotherapy configuration. We would try stronger chemicals more frequently," Doctor Sheldon explained as though he read the teen's mind. "Two days in a row with treatments followed by two days without. We would cycle through that method as long as your body can take it. At a minimum, it should extend your life by a few weeks. At best, it might be able to trigger a period of remission."

"Is that the treatment you think I should try then?" Harry asked as he turned back to the window to once again focus at the icy tree.

"It's the treatment that has the best chance of survival."

"You didn't answer my question," the teen pointed out.

"No, it isn't what I think you should do," Dr. Sheldon answered. "I think that you should discontinue treatment all together."

Harry gave a sharp, involuntary gasp of surprise at the admission.

"I think you should begin to think about quality of life rather than quantity. Drop out of school. Take a vacation. If there's anything you've always wanted to do but never done, do it now. Once you discontinue your current treatment, you'll have a pretty short window of opportunity, but you'll feel better during that period than you have in months because you won't be pumping your system full of poison anymore.

"Mr. Harris . . . Jay," the doctor started hesitantly. "You put up an amazing fight. You've been eating the rights things, exercising, and doing everything else you could to increase your chances of survival. You managed to beat your original prognosis by several months. If we'd been able to catch the cancer a few months, even a few weeks, earlier . . . I'm not in the habit of telling people to just give up, but if it were me, I'd just want to rest. To be as comfortable as possible and spend what time I had left with the people I love."

"With the people I love," Harry parroted despondently.

The teen managed to slowly rise from his seat, his hands and knees shaking as he did so. "I'm, uh, going to go to home and rest for a bit and then to school. Can you write me a note?"

Dr. Sheldon nodded his head up and down for a moment before fishing a piece of paper out of his desk. He scribbled a short note asking that 'Jay' be excused for missing his morning classes and then handed the note to his patient. Harry took the crisp sheet of paper in his hand and read it over once before folding it up and placing it in his inner jacket pocket. Harry regarded the doctor once more before making to leave. "Please keep me on the books for this afternoon. I'll decide if and how I wish to proceed by then."

"Of course," Doctor Sheldon said with a slight nod as Harry silently left the room.

Harry left Forks General at a brisk pace. He didn't stop or slow down at all on the fifteen minute walk home. By the time he reached his destination, he was out of breath and sweating profusely, despite the cold and snowy weather. Harry's hands were shaking badly enough by that point that it was a chore unlocking the front door. He managed to succeed after several attempts. Once inside his rented home, Harry slammed the front door shut as hard as he could. The clock hanging on the wall rattled as a result of the force.

The teen turned his back to the door and then leaned heavily against it. His hands were still shaking as he attempted to unbutton his jacket. His fingers seemed to be unable to manipulate the buttons. Harry was beginning to find it difficult to breathe, as though the jacket was so tight around his chest that it was suffocating him. After struggling with the buttons for a minute, the teen finally settled for forcing the jacket open, ripping a half-dozen buttons off in the process. As the little pieces of plastic clattered to the floor, Harry began to force in ragged breaths in a poor attempt to calm himself down.

It took Harry the better part of five minutes to get his breathing under control. When he finally did, he staggered his way over to the overstuffed recliner and flopped himself down. The exhaustion of the last 24 hours weighed heavily on the teen and he soon fell into a heavy sleep.

It was noon when Harry regained consciousness. He had been asleep for about three hours, but didn't feel the least bit rested. The sleep had at least succeeded in calming him down considerably and he was now able to ruminate over what the doctor had said.

Harry rose stiffly from his chair and walked into the kitchen where he had a calendar pinned to the wall. "Weeks. A month at the outside." He counted 28 days forward. The 28th day was December 27. Two days after Christmas and exactly one year since the Cullen family had left Forks.

God, Harry mused, must have a real sense of irony.

He had three _realistic_ options. One: Continue treatment and die soon. Two: Forego treatment and die sooner. Three: Try a more aggressive treatment a die a little bit later.

Not very attractive options.

It was with a sense of resignation that Harry left his home for school a short while later. He walked at a far calmer pace than he had walked home at. After stopping by the front office to drop off the note Dr. Sheldon had written him, he proceeded to biology.

Harry joined the mass of students that were heading to class after lunch. In the distance ahead of him he could make out Edward's copper-colored hair. The sight caused Harry's heart to constrict painfully in his chest. He hadn't taken the time to consider what effect the news of his impending death was going to do to his loved ones.

The bespectacled boy stopped so abruptly at that thought that the person behind him almost collided with him.

"Walk much?" the girl, whom Harry vaguely recognized, said as she stepped around him.

Harry didn't respond the girl's question—not that a response was either warranted or expected. He was too absorbed in the traitorous thought he had just had. He was worried about how Edward would deal with his death. How Edward—someone whom he loved—would cope. But it was more than that. It wasn't just that he loved Edward. The truth that he had avoided and run from came to the forefront of Harry's mind. Weeks of ignoring his instincts and dodging questions came to an end in one moment of perfect realization.

Harry Potter was still in love with Edward Cullen. Despite all of the pain the vampire had caused him. Despite the almost full year of separation. Despite all of the time and energy Harry had put forth to try to freeze the vampire out of his life. Despite Harry's decision to talk to the vampire and simply put the past behind him.

Jacob Black, it seemed, was right. He read Harry's feelings on the matter better than Harry read himself. He was still in love with Edward.

The teen continued to watch the vampire as he made his way into the small building that held the biology room. Despite the distance, Harry could see the dread on Edward's face. He was going to have to sit through another biology lecture next to Bella Swan, the girl whose blood sang painfully to vampire. And he was suffering through it because he had returned to Forks for Harry. Because he held out hope that Harry would forgive him and the two could be happy and together once more. The look of dread that Harry could see on the immortal's face as he turned to enter the building made Harry's chest ache painfully.

That was when an idea struck Harry.

He took his glasses off and proceeded towards his classroom. As Harry neared the building, he allowed his spectacles to slip through his fingers and land right in his path. Harry brought his foot down on top of the glasses and, once he was sure that the bulk of the glasses were underneath the heel of his shoe, he shifted all of his weight to that foot. The lenses made a very audible cracking sound as they broke on the icy ground.

Harry stepped back, bent over, and picked up his now-ruined glasses. "Oops," he said lightly before pocketing the mess and heading for biology.

Once inside the room, Harry headed straight for Bella and Edward's lab table in center of the room. Edward was watching Harry from the moment the younger boy entered the room. Bella wasn't paying attention to the door; she was sitting in her assigned seat as Harry's table mate, Tyler Crowley, made a fumbling attempt to ask Bella out on a date. This, Harry realized, would be far easier than he originally thought.

"Excuse me, Bella?" Harry interrupted as he approached.

"Yes, Jay," she responded quickly, clearly excited at being able to dodge Tyler's advances for a moment or two.

"I was wondering if you could do me a favor." Harry pulled his ruined glasses out of his pocket. "I'm such a klutz. I broke my glasses. I was wondering if you would mind switching seats with me for a few days until I can get them replaced."

"Oh," Bella replied uncertainly. "Wouldn't a seat closer to the front be better?" It appeared that rumours of her interest in Edward Cullen were not entirely unfounded.

"No, they're bifocals," Harry lied. "I will have just as much trouble sitting at the front as the back."

"C'mon, Bella," Tyler said enthusiastically as he began to gather the girl's things up. He completely ignored her protests. "You can slum it with me for a few days."

Harry couldn't help but smile as Bella was dragged away by her would-be suitor.

"Broke your glasses?" Edward asked suspiciously as Harry took the seat next to him.

"Yes. It was the strangest thing. I stepped on them, and then they broke," Harry said quietly. "Shoddy craftsmenship, that's what that is."

There was silence between the pair as they simply stared at one another. "Thank you," the vampire said gratefully.

"No problem, Edward," Harry said looking straight at the vampire. The pair smiled at each other and then turned to the front of the room in anticipation of the lecture beginning.

By the time class was dismissed, Harry was feeling far more at ease around Edward than he had at any point since the vampire's return to Forks. It was nice. Familiar. The pair left the classroom together. They walked in companionable silence until it was time to split up; Edward would be turning towards the locker rooms and Harry towards the front office.

"So, um, Edward," Harry started before his companion could walk off.

"Yes?" Edward asked hopefully.

"I'm going to busy the next couple of days. But, if you're free sometime next week, I thought maybe we could study together. And, you know, talk," Harry said a bit uncertainly.

Edward's reaction was instantaneous. His eyes lit up and an uncharacteristically large grin formed on his full lips. "I'd like that very much."

Harry smiled back at Edward for another moment before giving him a slight wave and heading off to the main office. He looked back several times as he walked away and found Edward standing in the same spot watching as Harry left. It felt very much like when the two first started flirting with one another the previous year.

The rest of the day passed by rather quickly. Aside from Emmett sending him smug smiles throughout study hall, Harry's last two classes were uneventful. It was shortly before four that afternoon that Harry arrived back at Forks General. He made his way straight to Doctor Sheldon's office.

"Mr. Harris," Doctor Sheldon said as he rose from his desk to greet the teen.

"Doctor Sheldon, I've spent a fair amount of time thinking it over and I've made a decision. I want more than a vacation or couple weeks without being sick. The things I want to do before I die aren't things I can get done in a month. I'm gonna fight this thing like hell. I'm gonna take that 8% and I'm gonna run with it. Either I'm gonna beat this thing, or I'm going down fighting. So, I would like to know how soon we can start the more aggressive treatment."

**A/N:** I got a review asking about why Harry hasn't been found by magical means, including cooperation between the British Ministry of Magic and its U.S. counterpart. These are plot points that will come up much later in the story.

Here are a couple parts of the explanation that don't really ruin anything for later: The Trace hasn't found Harry because he hasn't used any magic that would be detected. Why owls haven't found him has a very specific explanation that will come up in a later chapter. Finally, I operate under the theory that there aren't general locator spells that could be used to find Harry. Why? Because if there were such spells, why the heck weren't they used liberally throughout the books to find the various fugitives that weren't hiding under the fidelius charm? Hope that answers the question for now.


	12. Chapter 12

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 12: Esme**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Eleven – Esme**

Harry had sorely underestimated how much more aggressive the new treatment was going to be. Under the old treatment, Harry was wiped-out for two days afterwards. Under the new treatment, Harry didn't have the luxury of being wiped-out after just one treatment. He had to undergo the second consecutive day of treatment while still ill from the first day. He then had only two days to recover before starting over again. In short, the new treatment program left him perpetually ill.

He was miserable. And he'd only gone through the first cycle.

Jacob and Leah, who had both taken the news of his new prognosis with stiff upper lips, had spent most of Saturday and all of Sunday with Harry. They provided him some greatly needed companionship and distraction between bouts of being sick in the bathroom. Leah even tried to take off of work on Monday so that she could stay with Harry, but the teen managed to persuade her otherwise. He was, after all, going to be sick almost all of the time and Leah simply couldn't afford to always be taking off work to stay with him.

By the time Tuesday morning rolled around, Harry was totally stumped as to how he was going to manage school with the new treatment regimen. The new treatment took longer than the old one, so Harry had to endure the treatments in the mornings rather than in the afternoons. This meant taking at least half of each of those days off of school. And if his first cycle of the new treatment was anything to go on, he was going to be sick all afternoon and so would need to take off the whole day rather than just the morning. On top of that, he then had to take two days off of school to recover from the two days of treatment before starting the whole thing over again. Conceivably, he may not be able to attend school at all.

It was almost 10:30 when Harry was released from Doctor Sheldon's care on Tuesday morning. The doctor had frowned deeply when Harry walked out the hospital. He had strongly suggested that Harry find a friend to drive him to and from his treatments. Barring that, he had suggested that Harry arrange to pay one of the nurses who came off of shift at 11:00 to drive him home on the days he underwent chemotherapy. But Harry just wanted to go home and rest, and so refused to wait around another 30 minutes. He did promise the doctor, however, that he would look into arranging for someone to drive him in the future.

Before Harry could make it out of the room in which he received his treatments, his oncologist decided to make one final point.

"You're not going to be able to hide what you're going through anymore," the man said.

Harry knew that he was right.

The young wizard only managed to make it about a third of the way home before he had to stop because of the intense nausea he was feeling. The teen staggered to the metal bench in front of the market and sat down heavily. Sitting down did little to ease his nausea, so he decided to try putting his head between his legs and taking deep breathes. He really hoped that it would stop him from throwing up all over the sidewalk.

"Jay?" a gruff voice questioned not even a minute after the boy had sat down. Harry immediately recognized the voice as that of his neighbor, Police Chief Charlie Swan.

Harry raised his head to look at the man. "Hello, Charlie," he said as naturally as he could. His attempt at sounding normal failed miserably.

"What in blazes are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school?" Chief Swan asked disapprovingly. Obviously, he knew the answer to the latter question.

"I'm not feeling well today. I was just on my way back home from the hospital. You can call over there to confirm it if you want," Harry replied. As he spoke, his stomach began to churn and he felt like the world was tipping sideways.

"Let me guess. You had to walk to and from the hospital because your uncle is out of town. Again." If possible, the man's tone sounded even more disapproving than when he practically accused the teen of being truant.

Harry struggled to answer for a moment, but every time he started to open his mouth, he felt like he was going to be sick all over his neighbor's shoes.

"Oh, hello there Chief Swan," came a new voice from the door of the market. It was another voice that Harry knew very well: Esme Cullen.

The ill boy turned his head to the side to look at the vampire matriarch. She was her usual perfect self, dressed in dark-colored clothes that spoke of designer names and labels. In her arms was a large bag of groceries that Harry knew she had purchased as part of her coven's human camouflage. Only a small amount of food that Harry had eaten at her family's home the previous year had ever actually been consumed.

Although Esme had addressed Chief Swan, her eyes were fixed on Harry with concern.

"Hello, Esme," Chief Swan greeted.

"Oh my. Jay, dear, you look rather pale. Are you feeling alright?" she asked.

Charlie answered before Harry could. "He's got the flu or somethin'. That uncle of his isn't around, so the boy has to fend for himself while he's sick," the man bit out.

"Yes, well, Seymour does his best by Jay," Esme defended the fictitious man.

"The boy shouldn't be left alone so much, is all I'm sayin'," Charlie argued back.

"He does what he must to keep food on the table. Besides, I'm not about to leave Jay alone now that I know he's sick. I'll look after him for the day."

Harry wanted to protest, but instead moved from his seat as quickly as possible to the nearby trashcan. He emptied the little contents of his stomach and then proceeded to dry heave for several minutes. Esme was with him the instant he began to vomit, pulling the strands of the wig back away from his face. Several strands of hair clung to his now-sweaty face.

Any argument Harry could have made as to why he shouldn't spend the rest of the day in Esme's care had just been shot to hell. Once Harry was finished, the woman put her arm around his waist and led him towards her car: a large, silver SUV. Chief Swan followed behind with Esme's bag of groceries. Charlie grumbled something about irresponsible guardians the entire way.

The ride was blissfully silent. Esme seemed content to let Harry sit and rest. It surprised Harry when he opened his eyes to find that the vehicle was being navigated through a forest path. Harry felt a bit like an idiot for having not realized sooner that Esme intended to look after him at her home, not his. His brain should have understood her intent earlier, but his mind was far too muddled.

Esme pulled her SUV into the home's spacious garage. The garage usually hosted at least six cars; however, only Emmett's jeep and a Porche—which Harry assumed belonged to Alice because it didn't match Jasper's personality at all—remained. Rosalie's Corvette, Edward's silver Volvo, and Carlisle's Town Car were absent.

Thanks to the supernatural speed that all vampires possessed, Esme was opening the passenger door of the SUV in the heartbeat after she turned off the vehicle's ignition. She reached a deceptively strong hand out and took hold of Harry's arm to guide him carefully from the passenger seat. Esme's icy hand supported Harry as they climbed the stairs that led from the garage to the house proper.

"I think I'm gonna be sick again," Harry gasped out as they neared the living room. Without a word, Esme steered the boy towards the small powder room near the kitchen. Once again, Esme delicately held back the locks of dark hair as Harry was sick in the toilet. His stomach was empty from the outset this time, so he could do nothing but dry heave for several minutes.

By the time Harry was finished, his eyes had watered and more sweat coated his brow. "Thank you," he rasped to Esme.

"I can get you a toothbrush and some paste, it you'd like. Or some mouthwash."

"The mouthwash would be nice," Harry said as he rested his forehead upon his hands that were folded on the lip of the toilet. The cool porceliain felt wonderful against his skin.

Esme left Harry for just a moment before returning with the mouthwash. She removed the cap, held the bottle to the boy's lips, and tipped the bottle to help him take some of the fluid in his mouth. Harry swished it around for a few moments to get rid of the horrible acidic taste before spitting the mouthwash into the toilet.

After flushing, Esme asked, "Do you need to stay here or do you feel up for moving to the sofa?"

"I might get sick again if I stand," Harry said miserably.

"I can get you a pail. You will be much more comfortable in the living room than you will be here on this hard floor."

Harry could only nod his answer to Esme. Once she had her answer, the vampire took hold of Harry's arm high up near the shoulder. She then helped Harry to rise to his feet and all but carried him to the living room. Harry was shaking badly when he sat down upon the couch. He couldn't keep himself upright for more than a moment and so almost immediately leaned over to rest on his side.

Esme was gone for another moment before returning with a blanket, a pillow, and a blue paint bucket. The dark-haired vampire lifted Harry's head up and slid the pillow underneath before draping the blanket over his body. Esme's cold hand, much like the porcelain, felt wonderful against his feverish skin.

The teen closed his eyes for a moment and began taking long, slow breathes in the hopes of calming his stomach. His mind wandered for a moment as he did so. He wondered, idly, if he was the first one to ever use the pillow and the blanket. Vampires don't sleep, after all. The vampire coven would only own such items for guests—of which Harry believed himself to be the only one in recent history—and for props to maintain their human guise.

When Harry opened his eyes, he found Esme watching him carefully. Had Harry not been aware that Esme was a vampire, the sight of her standing as still as a statue staring at him would have been very disconcerting. But knowing what he did, he instead found her presence comforting.

"Can I ask a question?" Harry asked tiredly.

"Of course, if you feel up to it."

"Emmett talked to me in class last time I was ill and it made the time go by faster," he replied to her concern. Still, he hesitated before asking his question. "Why didn't you say goodbye to me before you left?"

"It's complicated," Esme began. "But the short answer is that we thought it would be easier on you."

"Easier? You're the closest thing I ever had to a mother. How could you leaving without saying goodbye and then going almost a year without contacting me be 'easier'?" Harry asked in a strained voice.

The boy's words were both wonderful and terrible to Esme's ears. On the one hand, Harry had said that he thought of her like a mother. On the other hand, his words made it clear that what she had done to protect him had actually caused him great pain.

"I'm sorry," she said with great emotion. "Edward thought that it might be easier on you if we just made a clean break."

"And you agreed."

"No, I didn't. But Edward was so determined that leaving was the best way to protect you. And that it wouldn't hurt as long if we just left quickly and quietly. Like pulling a band-aid off in one quick motion rather than a little at a time. He made a convincing argument and . . . we all just went along with it."

"That sucks," Harry said softly as he let his eyes slip closed. He felt so very tired. "I missed you. I missed you all so very much," he said as he drifted off.

He could have been imagining it, but he was pretty sure that Esme kissed him on the forehead before he fell asleep.

Esme was still close by when Harry woke up. He felt significantly better than he did before he fell asleep.

"Please tell me you didn't stand there the entire time I was out."

Esme just smiled in response before changing the subject. "It's just after three. You slept straight through lunchtime. Would you like me to fix you something?"

"No thank you," Harry declined her offer. "I don't feel nauseas at the moment, but food doesn't sound very appetizing."

"Okay," Esme said sounding a little disappointed. She didn't get to cook food that would be eaten very often because of her family's special dietary needs. Harry remembered how excited she had been when he had first started spending time at the Cullen household. She was constantly trying out new and extravagant recipes on the teen. Harry and Esme had even started cooking together after a while. That was how the pair had bonded.

"Do you want me to drive you home before the kids get here?"

"No," Harry replied. He could see the surprise in Esme's eyes. Clearly, she had expected him to want to flee before Edward and his siblings returned home from school. "I would like to stay, if that's okay. There are some things that Edward and I need to talk about."

Esme smiled in such a way that showed her pearly white teeth at Harry's stated desire. "I'm going to go make some soup, in case you get hungry later," she said in an inordinately cheerful voice as she turned to head for the kitchen.

"Wait," Harry said. His seeker reflexes allowed him to reach out and grab Esme's arm before she got out of reach. It helped that she was moving at the speed of a normal human. Harry pulled Esme down towards him. Obviously, Harry wasn't strong enough to actually force the vampire down towards him; she simply responded to the pressure he was applying and moved down towards the teen. Harry wrapped his arms around Esme's neck and gave her a strong hug. "Thank you for taking care of me today."

After a few seconds, Harry released his hold on the vampire and allowed her stand up properly. Esme was beaming at Harry. It was clear to her that the hug was meant as something more than a thank you. The hug was Harry's was of telling Esme that he forgave her for the hurt she had caused him.

Esme gave Harry one last smile before heading off towards the kitchen.

Harry sat quietly on the couch and waited for the Cullen 'children' to return from school. Soon enough he heard Esme call out to him from the kitchen. "I just heard the garage door open." It was sweet of her to warn him.

Edward Cullen raced into the living at an unnatural speed not two seconds later.


	13. Chapter 13

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 13: Edward, Part One**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Twelve – Edward, Part One**

"Harry," Edward greeted simply as he took in the sight of the boy. Harry was sitting upright on the couch. A pillow was sitting off to his left and a blanket was draped across his lap.

The wizard was initially surprised that Edward had run into the room at full speed. It occurred to him after a moment, however, that Edward probably smelled him as soon he reached the garage. He wondered momentarily if the scent of wolf was still strong enough to hide what he was going through. Not that it would matter in a few moments.

"Hello, Edward."

The pair stared at each other in silence; each simply taking in the presence of the other. The remaining Cullen children filed in behind Edward a few short moments later. Alice was leading the quartet, a smile plastered on her face; despite Harry obviously being ill, she was quite obviously pleased at his presence. Emmett, likewise, seemed very pleased that Harry was there. Jasper entered wearing his usual unreadable expression and Rosalie . . . well, she just looked bored.

"Harry," Alice greeted the teen, effectively ending the quiet moment he was sharing with Edward. "This is a surprise."

"Poor dear was so sick he could barely stand," Esme said as she returned to the living room from the kitchen. "But he seems to be doing much better now."

"That's a relief," Emmett said. "You looked so miserable the other day in class, I'd hate to think of how sick you'd have to be to skip. And to let Esme spend the day babying you."

Esme shot Emmett a disapproving glare at the last part. Harry's expression tightened visibly at Esme and Emmett's words. The change in his facial features didn't go unnoticed by the vampires.

"Harry?" Edward inquired in concern.

"I, uh, really want to talk to you about everything that's happened between us, Edward. But . . . I can't expect you to be honest with me about things if I can't be honest with you about what's going on with me." All eyes were on the wizard as took a deep breath and decided to just take the plunge. "I have terminal cancer."

Silence met the statement. Harry couldn't tear his eyes away from Edward. Although the vampire went the better part of a minute without showing any outward sign of having even heard Harry's declaration, the teen could see it in his eyes. The realization of what Harry had just told him. The rising panic. The fear and uncertainty. The vampire's amber eyes were perfectly mirroring all of things Harry had felt when he had first been diagnosed.

As if something finally snapped inside the vampire, Edward all but jumped from where his feet had been planted. He was suddenly sitting next to Harry on the couch and the teen was being pulled into an almost suffocatingly tight embrace against the vampire's cold, hard chest.

"I'll turn you," Edward said fiercely as he held the person held most dear. "Just say the word and I'll turn you."

Harry shifted slightly against Edward so that he could look up at his face. "No."

"Please," Edward all but begged. There was so much emotion in his pleading eyes that Harry was certain he would be on the verge of crying if he was human. That thought tore at Harry's heart.

Harry planted both of his hands against Edward's chest and pushed. Edward responded to the dark-haired teen's feeble attempts to push him away by relaxing his grip and allowing Harry to move just far enough back that he wasn't flush against him. The vampire did not, however, release Harry from his embrace.

"Please," Edward begged again.

"You can't. If you bite me, you break the treaty. Sam won't care what the reason is; he's made that clear. You bite me, they attack. It doesn't matter what happens at that point because Victoria's opposition gets cut in half. She knows you're here so she's preparing to fight both your family and the La Push Pack. With half of her opposition gone, she'll win without any difficulty. The treaty has to stay intact."

"I don't care about the damn wolves," Edward all but growled. "I don't care if Victoria kills them and every human within a hundred miles. A thousand miles. I won't just let you die."

Harry gave Edward a watery smile at that declaration. "I'm not going to 'just die.' I'm getting treatment. That's why I wasn't at school today. I don't have it in me to just roll over and let this thing beat me. I'm going to fight it."

Edward stared back at Harry and studied him for a long moment. His eyes were searching Harry's own as through he was trying to find some crack in Harry's resolve. Some little thing that he could seize upon to get Harry to relent and agree to become a vampire. Realization dawned in Edward's eyes and he reached out to brush a strand of the wig's hair from Harry's face.

"Treatment. You mean chemotherapy."

Edward understood, Harry realized.

"Yeah."

"How long?"

Harry decided to interpret Edward's question as asking how long he had been undergoing chemotherapy rather than how long the doctor predicted Harry's body could hold out. He tilted his head to the side as he answered, "This round? A few months. I started the first round back in May."

Edward could feel Harry leaning back heavily against his hands. He moved himself forward and gently released the human so that he could rest against the pillow and armrest of the couch.

"Please tell me everything."

Harry sighed as he looked at Edward and then at the rest of vampires in the room. The other vampires, whom Harry had almost forgotten about when he was in Edward's arms, were frozen in the same spots they had each been standing in when Harry had made his startling announcement. Esme, Emmett, Jasper, and Alice all had uniform expressions of despair on their faces. Jasper, Harry had a nagging feeling, was as likely to be upset over what this situation would do to Edward as he was over Harry. Although Rosalie had a pained expression on her face, there was something different about it. Something extra. Something that Harry, if he didn't know any better, would have thought to be shame.

Harry licked his dry lips before beginning. "Well, I told you that Laurent broke my arm last March, right?"

"Yes," Edward replied. "In the same place that James broke it last winter."

After nodding his head in confirmation, Harry continued. "I had a full physical at the time. My eyesight had been getting worse. It was causing me severe headaches and I thought that maybe I needed a new prescription," he said as he unconsciously rubbed the bridge of his nose where his glasses should have been. They were absent, of course, because Harry had broken them in order to have an excuse to sit next to Edward in biology. "Some tests later, Doctor Sheldon found a tumor on my pituitary gland. It was pressing against my optic nerve, causing problems with my eyesight and the headaches. The tumor was successfully removed surgically by going through my nasal cavity a few days later and I started post-operative chemotherapy immediately. The last round of tests after that found I that had abnormal production of white blood cells. Leukemia. I didn't have the tumor anymore, but I had cancer in my bone marrow. I've been on chemo ever since."

Harry hesitated before continuing. "Last Friday morning, Doctor Sheldon called me into his office to discuss the latest round of test results. He found cancer cells on lymph nodes throughout my body. He referred to it as the cancer having moved 'aggressively' throughout the areas of my lymphatic system that weren't already affected. My old treatment plan had about a 4% chance of pushing the cancer into remission so we switched something more aggressive to double that chance."

"8%," Edward said despondently.

"8%," Harry echoed. "It's better than zero," he offered.

"And your prognosis? How long does this Doctor Sheldon think you'll live?"

"Maybe a month," Harry replied quietly.

Edward was quiet for a minute before turning to look at Esme. "Call Carlisle," he ordered before looking back at Harry. "He knows the best doctors in the world. We'll get you the best treatment available."

The female vampire left the room at Edward's command, presumably to call her husband.

"I say we go and rip Victoria's head off. Right now. Kill the bitch and leave with Harry. Turn him somewhere away from Forks so the wolves don't get all pissy," Emmett interjected fiercely. He was ready for a fight.

Harry couldn't help but smile at the large vampire's pragmatism. "Were it only so easy. The pack has been trying to track her down for months."

"Are you in any pain?" Edward asked.

"Not at the moment. I have good days and bad ones. I had chemo this morning, so I've been more nauseas than anything else. And that's not bad at the moment. I always feel okay for a bit after I've slept."

"You had a round of treatment this morning? You were _walking home_ after having had that stuff pumped through your veins?" a horrified Esme asked as she re-entered the room.

Harry nodded meekly.

"Why on earth didn't you have someone drive you?"

"Because he was keeping it a secret," Jasper answered for Harry.

"He's right," Harry said, answering Edward's intense gaze. "Only a handful of people know that I'm sick."

"So, what? You've just been doing this all by yourself?"

"I haven't been entirely on my own. Leah and Jacob usually go with me when I get the treatments."

"But they haven't been lately. You can go to and from the hospital without Carlisle noticing your scent, but there is no way they could have. The wolf smell is just too strong. So you've been going by yourself ever since we returned," Edward deduced grimly.

"Yes, I have."

"You didn't want me to know."

"I didn't."

"Then what changed your mind?" Edward inquired.

"I re-evaluated things. I'd already decided to talk to you about what happened. Jacob inadvertently helped me decide that," he said with a light laugh. "Once I decided to talk to you, I had to decide how much to talk to you about. It's become clear to me today that I wanted to talk to you about everything. No secrets. That was our old rule, right?"

"Okay . . . alright. We're gonna help you. Anything you need. Everything. We're gonna beat Victoria and then . . ." Edward trailed off.

"And then we'll figure things out," Harry finished.

Edward looked like he wanted to say something, but he closed his mouth and his head perked up like an animal that suddenly heard something. "Carlisle just pulled up."

Harry was always amazed at how incredibly fast the vampires could act. Only a minute or so had passed since Esme had called Carlisle, but he was already home. Such things were possible when you could drive at the maximum speed your car could manage without fear of crashing.

Sure enough, Carlisle came rushing into the room the next moment. He looked to where Harry was resting on the couch and immediately began to question him in full doctor mode. He hadn't had the opportunity to question Harry like this since the encounter with James the previous year. It was oddly comforting to Harry to have the vampire in on the secret; he liked Doctor Sheldon, but he was no Carlisle Cullen.

After checking Harry's pulse and convincing himself that there was no emergency, Carlisle shifted to asking more mundane questions. "What have you eaten today?"

"Not much of anything," Harry answered hesitantly. His hesitation was warranted; every vampire in the room—including both Jasper and Rosalie—shot him a stern look at his answer. "I went in for chemo first thing this morning, got sick repeatedly, and then fell asleep."

"I have soup on," Esme said, cutting off Harry's excuses. "I'll just go take some up," she said as she left the room.

Esme returned a moment later with a steaming bowl of what appeared to be chicken noodle soup. Edward took the soup from her and held it in front of Harry. For a moment, the human was afraid that the vampire intended to feed him. Fortunately, Edward knew Harry better than that. He simply held the bowl for Harry. No human could ever hold a bowl of soup as perfectly still and firm as Edward did. Harry might as well have been in front of the dining room table.

Harry ate the soup while fielding questions from three of the Cullens about his condition. Carlisle's questions were focused on the progression of his illness and the treatments he had received. He seemed to respect Doctor Sheldon, but did have a few choice words about his bedside manner. Esme and Alice asked questions about how he had managed to keep his illness a secret and what the La Push pack had done to help him. They were particularly impressed with Billy Black being willing to lie to his longtime friend, Charlie Swan, about having contact with Harry's non-existent uncle.

"So we'll need to do something about school," Esme pointed out a few minutes into the discussion. She was right, of course. Harry had reached the limit on how long he could keep his illness a secret. At least for the foreseeable future, he was going to have to take a medical leave of absence from school. Alice, Edward, and Emmett all then volunteered to rotate absences in order to stay with him. Harry tried to protest, but the three made it clear that it wasn't open for debate. For every day that Harry was out of school, one of the three of them would stay with him. Harry was sure Jacob and Leah were going to hate that notion with a passion.

All in all, telling the Cullens went over far easier than he had expected it to. Telling them about his condition was only the first part of the day, however. After he had finished his soup, Harry decided that he should move on to the second part before he got sick again.

"Edward," he started, "would you mind going for a walk with me?"

The vampire hesitated for a moment, as though he was afraid a simple walk would be the death of Harry. "Sure," he eventually relented. He had never been able to resist Harry's pleading eyes.


	14. Chapter 14

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 14: Edward, Part Two**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Thirteen – Edward, Part Two**

Harry removed the blanket from his lap and stood up from the couch. He was mildly amused at the way everyone in the room seemed to lean his direction slightly, as though they were afraid the strain of standing up would be too much for him. He also recognized that that attitude would begin to wear on him very quickly. Edward stood up and silently led Harry out of the house through the front door.

Once outside, Edward immediately turned south. Harry knew that this path would lead them between the six massive cedar trees that shaded the entire acre of front yard, through the untamed forest beyond, and eventually deposit them by the Sol Duc River. The area that they were heading through was visible from Edward's bedroom on the third floor of the house. This was the path that Edward had walked with Harry almost everyday after school during November and December of the previous year; however, Edward had usually started the trip by having Harry climb on his back and then leaping from his window. Walking the path once more provided Harry with a strong sense of nostalgia.

The weather was perfect for an early December walk with a vampire. The weather was hovering just above freezing and, mercifully, there was no wind. The sky was overcast such that there were no strong rays of sunlight that would have confined the Cullens indoors so as to avoid the risk of being seen sparkling by humans. Despite the morning having been cold and windy, the day had turned out pretty pleasant.

After walking in silence for a few minutes, Edward finally seemed to accept that Harry wasn't quite as fragile as he had thought. True, all humans were fragile creatures to Edward, but he had long ago accepted that they weren't going to shatter into pieces if hit by a particularly strong wind.

"So," Harry said after a bit, "this is awkward."

Edward chuckled at Harry's statement. "I didn't intend for it to be awkward when we finally talked."

"Nevertheless . . .," Harry trailed off. "It's weird. I have thought about having this conversation at least a hundred times in the last couple of days. And yet, for some reason, all of my well-planned speeches and all of the questions I wanted to ask are escaping me."

"Then perhaps I should start," Edward suggested. He turned to Harry and, in what must have been the most sincere voice that Harry had heard in his entire life, said, "I'm sorry."

"I know," came Harry's reply. It wasn't the answer Edward was hoping for, but it was a start anyway. "I know that you're sorry. Emmett told me. I could see it in Esme's eyes. What I want to know is: why? Emmett said it was to protect me, but I just don't get it. I want you to help me to understand," Harry said in a voice that revealed to Edward that he was quite frustrated with the whole situation.

"As Emmett said, I was trying to protect. You got a paper cut from a Christmas present that I gave you and Jasper almost killed you over it. You were almost killed because of something I gave you. Because of wrapping paper, for pity's sake. Humans get paper cuts and scraped knees. They cut themselves on kitchen knives. All I could think about were the fifteen hundred ways you could accidentally bleed inside my home again. The fifteen hundred ways things that could cause a member of my family to kill you."

"Fifteen hundred?" Harry asked.

"I counted. And that number doesn't include illnesses," the vampire replied darkly. "I really believed that that we were going to be the death of you. I thought that by leaving, I was giving you a chance at a real life away from all of the danger that we brought upon you."

Harry scoffed at the idea. "Life-imperiling events find me. I could move to Alaska and live in a bunker and something nasty with a foul tempter would be bound find its way in."

"You know, our sister coven lives in Alaska," Edward said with Harry's favorite crooked smile.

"See. Life-imperiling," Harry said jokingly. "Okay, I get how you thought what you thought. You were wrong. Totally and completely wrong. Perhaps more wrong than any person in the history of wrongness has ever been wrong. But I don't get why you didn't just talk to me about it."

"Because you would have tried to convince me otherwise. I don't know if you're aware of this, but you are a very determined little human. Your keeping your illness a secret is certainly a testament to that. You would have argued and the resolve I had would have crumbled," Edward explained.

"I would have argued because you were-"

"Wrong," Edward cut Harry off. "Yes, I believe we have established that I was wrong."

"Hey, no getting mouthy with me. You were wrong and people who were wrong don't get to be know-it-alls." Harry retorted. He then thought about what Edward said for a bit. They were now beyond the large meadow that served as the Cullen's front yard and had proceeded into the forest. Harry had slowed down considerably. Not because he was getting nauseas again—though he was—but because it was a bit difficult to navigate the snowy terrain without his glasses. "So if you were so worried about me convincing you to not go, why did you even bother saying goodbye?"

"I couldn't leave you without saying goodbye. Every time I thought about doing that, I hurt in ways I didn't know I could."

"So you settled for hurting me," Harry said quietly.

"That was not my intent. But from what I saw in you pet wolf's mind, I know that that is what I did."

Harry was watching his feet as he walked. He didn't really want to look at Edward at the moment. He really didn't like that Jacob had shown Edward what may have been the lowest point in his life. "The things you said to me. They really hurt. You know that I was insecure about our relationship. I'd had crushes before, but you were my first real relationship. Adding to that was the fact that I was still very," he hesitated as he searched for the right phrase, "new to whole 'liking blokes' thing. You played on every insecurity that I had."

"I can only ask your forgiveness for what I said. I didn't mean a single word of it. I was never bored with you. You were never a mere distraction to me. And I certainly wasn't experiementing with something I had not tried in my century of life."

The pair fell back into their silence as they continued to walk.

"Okay, then. Why take everything back? You basically robbed me."

"Esme told you about my theory about the clean break, right?"

Harry didn't need to answer the question. The fact that Edward knew to ask that question at all meant that he had probably plucked that memory out of Esme's mind at some point earlier in the afternoon. "The band-aid theory."

"I thought that if we left all at once. That if we completely erased ourselves from your life, that it would be easier for you to move on. To have a normal life. You could just pretend that the entire thing was a dream with no real, tangible consequences or impact on your life."

"And that's why none of you ever contacted me. That's why you never let me know that you were okay. You couldn't afford to even let Alice be my long-distance friend," Harry concluded.

"Yes. Again, I was wrong."

The duo finally reached the river. The edges of the water were frozen, but the majority of the river was still flowing. They stopped and stared at the running water.

Harry let out a rough breath before continuing his inquisition. "I guess I'm up to the big one: why did you come back?"

"Because I love you," Edward said without a moment's hesitation.

The words caused Harry's heart to speed up. He blinked furiously to keep his eyes from tearing up too much.

"I made a horrible mistake by leaving. No, not just leaving," Edward corrected himself. "It was a mistake to not talk to you about my fears. It was a mistake to leave. And it most certainly was a mistake how I left. I really messed things up.

"I was stubborn about it. I spent the first few weeks trying to forget all of the happiness I had with you. When that didn't work, I went about trying to make sure you were safe. I tried to find Victoria. The trail led me to South America. Obviously, I was very far off." Edward hesitated before he said the next part. "At one point I considered going to England. I thought about trying to hunt down Voldemort so that I could kill him for what he has taken from you. For the danger he poses to you. That way, you would never have to face him again."

Harry didn't like to think about Britain. He had told Edward everything about his life. Up until the circumstances that broke them up, Edward and Harry's relationship had had only one rule: no secrets. Still, Harry didn't like the subject. He didn't like that there could be people suffering and dying while he hid. He didn't like feeling like a coward. He didn't like the uncertainty regarding what was happening in Britain. And, most recently, he didn't like the idea that Voldemort would outlive him.

"I can't be with you under these circumstances, Edward," Harry said.

Edward said nothing, but Harry knew he was disappointed.

"Between Victoria and cancer, it's just too much at the moment. I can't be in a relationship right now."

"I understand."

"You shouldn't. I don't really understand it. I just feel like I can't have another thing on my plate. Like all of the baggage I would have to deal with if we were back together would be the tipping point," Harry confessed.

Edward didn't say anything. He just stood next to Harry and continued to watch the river.

"Is there any chance you'll forgive me?" Edward asked.

"I already have."

"Is there any chance you'll be with me again?"

Harry turned to look at Edward. The vampire mirrored the movement. "I said I can't be with you right now. Once we get past all of this bad stuff, then we'll have a chance to figure everything out."

Edward nodded. "The light at the end of this long, dark tunnel."

"Exactly. It gives us both something good to look forward to. Something other than sickness and violence."

"Good things are worth waiting for," Edward agreed.

By this point, Harry's stomach was beginning to rebel against the soup he had eaten. He had begun taking long, slow breaths through his nose. Edward, of course, noticed immediately.

"Should we head back now?"

"Yes," Harry said. He managed to keep a tight hold over his composure as he spoke.

The pair turned back towards the house and began walking. The longer they walked, the dizzier Harry felt and the more upset his stomach became. Edward recognized his love's difficulty and took hold of his arm to steady him and help him to walk. Harry was barely able to put one foot in front of the other by the time they reached the house. Clearly, the period of relief he felt after sleeping for a few hours had expired.

Upon entering the house, Harry found that things had pretty well returned to normal. Alice, Jasper, and Carlisle were absent from the living room. Emmett was watching television while Esme could be heard chopping something in the kitchen. Rosalie was waiting by the front door.

"How are you feeling?" she asked as soon as Harry and Edward entered.

"My stomach is upset," Harry relied.

Rosalie surprised Harry, not only by asking the question, but by then taking hold of his free arm and helping Edward to walk Harry back to the couch. Emmett moved away as soon as the trio neared the couch. Harry was soon lying back down on the comfortable sofa with the paint bucket at the ready. The three vampires stayed nearby in silence for several long minutes as Harry lay with his eyes closed taking deep breaths.

"Harry," Rosalie ventured after a bit. The uncertainty in her voice sounded unnatural to Harry's ears.

The boy, whose breathing had finally returned to normal, cracked an eye open and looked at the blond vampire. "Yes?"

"I owe you an apology. Several apologies, actually."

"For what?" he asked, perplexed.

Rosalie chewed on her lower lip before going any further. "I supported Edward's plan to leave you. The others didn't, but I did. I've treated you awfully. And I've been . . . mocking your wig behind your back. I feel positively wretched about it all. I hope you can accept my apology."

"It takes a very good person to admit something like that. I probably never would have found out if you hadn't told me. The others would have kept it quiet, you know. It was brave to confess to me," Harry told her. "Of course I forgive you."

Rosalie smiled softly at that before backing away from Harry. She took her husband's hand and they walked away, leaving Harry alone with Edward.

"I'll be damned," Harry said after he was alone with Edward. It took him a moment to realize that Emmett and Rosalie would have undoubtedly heard him thanks to their enhanced hearing. That thought embarassed him.

The last thing Harry said before falling back asleep was for Edward to call Jacob and let him know that he was okay. Edward seemed oddly eager to comply.


	15. Chapter 15

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 15: A Good Day**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Fourteen – A Good Day**

Emmett was prepared for just about anything when he entered Harry Potter's home Friday morning. Anything that is, except for Harry Potter bounding down the stairs with a bright smile on his face.

"Hiya, Emmett!" Harry cheerfully called as he hopped the last three steps and landed directly in front of the vampire.

"Uh, hi," Emmett said a little uncertainly as the teen moved past him. "How are you feeling?"

"Fantastic," Harry replied as he looked out the front window. "Oh, good. I was a little worried you were going to walk or get dropped off or something."

"You were?"

"Oh yes. It would have been much harder to talk you into taking me to Port Angeles today if you didn't have the jeep with you."

"Port Angeles?" Emmett asked in surprise. "Shouldn't you be, you know, taking it easy?"

Harry turned from the window and looked at his guest. "Not today."

"Why not? You just had chemo the day before yesterday."

"I know, but today is a good day."

"A good day?" the vampire questioned.

"Exactly." Harry simply stood staring at Emmett as though he had explained everything. After a moment of silence, the teen got the hint that the vampire had no idea what he meant. "A good day, Emmett. Your dad said that for no particular reason I would just have some days when I feel great. Today is one of those days. I feel better than I have in months. And I would really like to get out of town for the day."

Emmett was shocked. Alice had gone on and on that morning about how Harry was barely awake for more than five minutes the entire time she had sat with him the day before. Harry suddenly being not only up and around but anxious to go out of town for the day was more than a bit odd.

"Why do you need to go to Port Angeles? I'd be happy to take you anywhere you'd like to go in town."

"Well, there are a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it would look really bad if I was seen wandering around town less than a week after starting my medical leave from school. Second, I can't get any good pizza here," the wizard explained.

"You want _pizza_?"

"Absolutely. I've been thinking about it all morning. A nice big pizza with extra cheese. Maybe some ham," Harry said with a grin. "Or peppers! Maybe both!" he added excitedly.

"Why pizza?" Emmett questioned. He himself had never had pizza. It wasn't exactly a popular dish in Tennessee before he became a vampire in 1935 and, like all vampires, the thought of eating it after he had been turned was akin to the thought of eating dirt. Besides that, there was no way the greasy food could be good for Harry.

"I've been eating healthy for months. I've avoiding candy bars, soda pop, popcorn, and just about everything else. The only junk food I've had since June has been a hamburger and I threw that up because I was stupid enough to eat it the day after chemo. I think I can actually eat something ridiculously bad for me today and hold it down."

Emmett wanted to say no. He wanted to tell the teen to take it easy and rest. There was even a part of him that was practically screaming for him to say no because it was too risky to take Harry out of Forks, even for an afternoon. All of the parts of him that wanted to refuse Harry's request went silent at the human's hopeful expression. How could he possibly tell the teen that he was going to make him sit around at home on the one day he felt well?

"Okay, okay. I'll take you to get some pizza. But then I'm bringing you straight back," the vampire acquiesced.

"Right," Harry agreed. "We'll go to Port Angeles, do a little shopping, grab a few slices of pizza, and head back."

Emmett frowned at that. "I didn't agree to take you shopping. That's an Alice thing."

"I'm shopping for movies to watch on my bad days. I don't know anyone who watches as much television as you do. It's entirely possible that there isn't anyone on the planet who does. You're the perfect guy to take me shopping for movies."

The large vampire scowled at Harry's logic before motioning the boy to following him out to the jeep. The motion elicited a whoop of joy from the mortal.

The drive to Port Angeles was filled with Harry's questions. The wizard must have asked a thousand questions about movies during the drive. He wanted to know what movies Emmett recommended and which ones he should avoid. What movies were Emmett's favorites? What about Rosalie's? Esme's? By the time the pair reached the video store, Harry had come up with a mental list of no fewer than thirty movies he intended to buy. Emmett thought that the number was a bit excessive at first, but then realized how much time Harry was going to be spending cooped up at home in the coming weeks. Then he thought that the number might be too low.

Emmett allowed Harry to wander off once they were inside the video store. It wasn't as if Harry could get lost or anything. Emmett would be able to both smell and hear the teen even if they were standing at the two points of the store farthest away from one another. While Harry went through the shelves of alphabetized movies gathering up the titles on his list, Emmett headed for the television series section. The vampire began picking up every well-reviewed box set he could find that he himself didn't already own; after all, he could just give Harry the ones he already possessed.

It took Emmett only a few minutes to collect a staggering pile of DVDs for the teen. His stack was so large, in fact, that few if any humans would have had the skill to hold it without spilling the boxes into a large heap on the floor. Once he had his selections, he went about locating his charge.

Emmett rounded the end of an aisle and found Harry standing perfectly still near the start of the alphabetical shelves. It was odd, Emmett realized, that Harry hadn't made it any farther along than that. As he neared the teen, he was able to see that Harry wasn't just standing around; he was standing and watching a movie being played on one of the monitors spread throughout the store. Surprisingly, it wasn't a movie Emmett had seen. Or at least it wasn't one he recognized.

The scene being played out on the television screen was that of a wedding. There was a blond woman in a very traditional wedding dress running down the front stairs of a church hand-in-hand with her new husband. A large crowd had gathered around the happy couple and was cheering for them while throwing rice.

The expression on Harry's face is what really got Emmett. The teen seemed sad somehow. He wasn't reacting like a person should when watching such a happy scene; his expression was better suited for somewhat watching a particularly sad scene, like a funeral.

"Harry?" Emmett asked.

The wizard turned away from the screen so quickly that he almost dropped the small armful of movies he had. "Oh, Emmett. You startled me."

"I can see that," the dark-haired vampire said. "Is there a problem?"

"What?" Harry asked in confusion. "Oh, no problem. I just forgot to get a shopping basket is all. Mere humans such as myself can't handle as many movies as you can."

"I see." Emmett hadn't bought a word of it.

Harry walked past Emmett, retrieved a basket from a stand near the front door, and then returned to the shelves of movies to select his purchases. Emmett followed closely behind, concerned about Harry's sudden change in attitude. He had been bubbling with excitement all morning long, but now seemed to be down in the dumps. Harry wasn't acting like he was sick or anything. To the contrary, his movements still spoke of an energy that Emmett hadn't seen since the previous Christmas. Harry had, however, become unusually quiet and pensive all of the sudden.

Emmett followed behind Harry and gave advice now and then when the teen reached for a movie not already on his list. His advice wasn't followed in every case, but it was more often than not. In addition to providing advice, Emmett had to read the backs of several movie cases aloud to Harry because the teen hadn't had a chance to get a replacement pair of glasses yet.

It took about twenty minutes for Harry to pick all of the movies and make his way to the register. He scowled at Emmett when the vampire insisted on paying.

"Edward is already going to have my head for taking you out of town. If he finds out I let you pay for this stuff as well, he'll probably bury it somewhere that Rosalie can't find it," Emmett had explained as he swiped his credit card through the reader.

A short while later, Emmett and Harry were at a small pizza parlor in the main shopping district of Port Angeles. Despite the dark-haired teen's earlier enthusiasm for the greasy treat, he was really only picking at his meal.

"You hate weddings that much?" Emmett finally ventured.

"Huh?" Harry asked, clearly surprised at the question.

"You've been down ever since you saw that wedding scene at the video store. If you act like this the next time Rosalie and I get married, she'll get pissed."

"I don't have a problem with weddings," Harry declared.

"Then what is it?"

"You'll think I'm being . . . stupid," Harry said a bit awkwardly.

"I think you're wasting pizza."

Harry chewed on his lower lip for a moment. When he did so, it reminded Emmett a bit of Rosalie.

"Do you think Edward and I could have been like that?" Harry asked after a moment.

"Like what? A blonde with big fake boobs and an over-tanned call boy?"

"Just forget it," the teen said in frustration.

"Okay, okay, I won't make fun. I just don't get what you mean."

"If things were different. If I wasn't sick or a wizard and Edward wasn't a vampire. If we were just two boys who happened to meet one day. Do you think he and I could have been happy like that?"

The question stumped Emmett. "You mean, would you and Edward have gotten a fairytale ending if you didn't have to deal with all of the extra crap?"

"I never pictured anything quite like what was in the movie, but yeah. Do you think he and I could have been that happy? That things would have worked out and all of our friends and family would have been happy for us?"

"Maybe," Emmett asked honestly. "I don't really know. I mean, Edward loves you because of who you are and I don't know how he'd feel if you were someone totally different."

Harry started to absently play with the straw in his soda. "I guess."

"You wanna know what I am absolutely sure of?" Emmett asked.

That got Harry's attention. "What?"

"Even with all of the crap that's going on, you and Edward and going to get your 'happily ever after.'"

"You can't know that," Harry replied with a slight shake of his head.

"Yeah, I can. You wanna know how?"

"How?"

"Because I believe in the two of you. I believe that you are going to fight this cancer like no one has ever fought before. I believe that Edward is going to make sure Victoria gets her ass kicked so severely that every vampire she ever even thought about making is gonna feel it. And I believe that when it's all over, the two of you are going to finish patching things up and be happy."

"Ever the optimist," Harry said with a smile.

"You better believe it. Hell, look at me. If I deserve to get what I want out of life, then you and Edward sure as hell deserve to get each other. Wouldn't be right for me to get my Rosie and you and Edward to not get each other in the end."

Harry's smile grew larger when he heard Emmett refer to his wife as 'Rosie.' He may not necessarily have believed everything the vampire had said, but hearing it certainly made him feel better. With a laugh, Harry took a big bite out of his pizza.

School was out for the day by the time Harry and Emmett made it back to Forks. At Emmett's insistence, Harry called Leah on his cell phone on the ride home. The brawny vampire dropped the teen off at the border of the Reservation where Leah was waiting for him with her father's old truck.

Harry said his thanks to Emmett for taking him to Port Angeles before he set off with Leah for an afternoon of mischief with the female shapeshifter, her younger brother, and Jacob.

All in all, it was a pretty good day.


	16. Chapter 16

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 16: A Bad Day**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Fifteen – A Bad Day**

Leah Clearwater could smell the stench of leech the moment she got out of her truck. She couldn't tell the Cullen vampires apart by scent alone, but the presence of the silver Volvo in Harry's driveway told her that it was Edward's turn to skip school. She didn't bother knocking before letting herself into the house; even if she had, Harry probably wouldn't have heard for all that racket. Even without her enhanced hearing, she probably could have heard the music from outside the house.

"He needs to rest," she snapped as he barged into Harry's bedroom on the second floor. "And he can't do that with you playing that awful music."

Edward stopped playing and looked up from the keyboard he was sitting at. He shot Leah an irritated look, but said nothing.

"He's writing me a new song," a weak voice came from the opposite end of the room.

The female shapeshifter turned her head to look Harry over. The teen was clearly having a bad day. He was wearing his nightcap rather than his wig, which meant that he probably hadn't been out of bed all day except for when he had to go to the bathroom. This theory was supported by the fact that he was still wearing the pajamas and heavy robe he had been wearing when Leah and Jacob had left the night before.

"'Writing' you a new song would involve paper and a pencil, not pounding on a keyboard and keeping you from resting," Leah stated in a calm and even tone.

"I asked him to play it," Harry argued back. His voice sounded strained and tired.

Leah Clearwater turned her attention back towards the vampire before snarking, "Well, you managed to go another day without killing him, so I guess some small thanks is in order. You can leave now."

Edward didn't say anything back to Leah. Instead, he walked past her and over to Harry. "I really should be going, but there is something I need to give you first." The vampire pulled a small rectangular box out of jacket pocket and handed it Harry.

The teen was grinning excitedly as he opened the box. Leah couldn't see the contents of the box when Harry opened it, but she figured the vampire had bought the teen jewelry. Throwing money around in an attempt to buy Harry's affection seemed to be just the Cullen's style, in the Quiluete's opinion. She was surprised when she heard Harry laugh when he saw the contents of the box.

"You got me new glasses," the teen said as jovially as he could in his exhausted state.

"I meant to give them to year earlier today, but you were so tired . . ." the vampire trailed off.

"Thank you, Edward."

"It was the least I could do. You did, after all, break your last pair protecting me from my own personal demon."

Leah smirked involuntarily at Edward's comment. Harry had told her the story about breaking his glasses so that he would have an excuse to trade seats with Bella Swan. She found it amusing that Edward would refer to the girl as a demon, particularly in light of Jacob Black's growing crush on her.

The shapeshifter pulled herself from her thoughts regarding Jacob's crush on the oblivious Swan girl just in time to see Harry reach out and give Edward Cullen's hand a firm squeeze as they said their goodbyes to one another. Personally, she very much disliked Edward Cullen. She hated how he had treated Harry and she hated that he was making no bones about his desire to resume his relationship with the human. Despite those ill feelings, however, she was thankful for the way his presence seemed to give Harry the strength to keep fighting his disease. Every day that Harry fought back against his cancer was a day that Leah grudgingly thanked God that Edward Cullen had returned to Forks.

After the vampire left, Leah took a seat on the side of the bed next to her best friend. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm not going to die today, if that's what you're wondering."

"It's not."

"Good. Because I fully intend to be back on my feet tomorrow morning," Harry said with great resolve.

"You have chemo tomorrow," Leah pointed out.

"Exactly. I have no intention of having someone wheel me into the hospital. I'm not that weak."

The words 'not yet' weren't spoken aloud, but both Leah and Harry silently amended the wizard's statement to include them. Harry had been on the more aggressive treatment for almost a week and a half. If Doctor's Sheldon's original prognosis was accurate, he may have used up almost a third of his remaining life already. And it was starting to show.

The only good day Harry had had was the day that Emmett Cullen had taken him to Port Angeles. Everyone had been furious with the vampire when he returned with Harry that afternoon, but they were all careful not to voice such anger in front of Harry. That day had made him so happy that no one wanted to tarnish his memory of it with an argument.

Leah smiled down at the boy who had become so important to her in the past nine months. He had closed his eyes and his breathing had become soft and even. It was amazing how easily he fell asleep these days.

Sitting in the quiet, the werewolf took a moment to examine Harry's room and how much it had changed recently. A CD player had been placed on his nightstand. Leah had no doubt that she would find a CD of music composed by Edward Cullen for Harry inside the machine if she were to lift the lid. The walls of the room, which had previously been bare, were now decorated with a large number of photos. Some of the pictures were framed while others were simply tacked in place. Many of the pictures were of Edward and Harry together. Alice Cullen made an appearance a handful of them as well. Leah assumed that those pictures were among the posessions that Edward Cullen had taken back from the human in an attempt to erase their time together.

A fair number of the pictures included Leah and/or Jacob. Though it might have been petty, Leah was quietly pleased to note that she made more appearances than either Jacob or Alice.

Looking around the room at the pictures drew Leah's attention to the empty birdcage in the corner of the room. She wondered if Harry had told any of the Cullens about what had happened to his snowy owl, Hedwig. Surely, she thought, they would have noticed that the animal hadn't made an appearance during any of their visits. True, the owl had always avoided the Cullens in the same way that all other animals did. But one of the vampires was bound to have at least wondered.

The werewolf could remember the horrible day that they had found the poor creature dead. Leah and Jacob had driven Harry home from an afternoon at First Beach to find his front door open; the locks had been ripped out. The house was in total disarray. Drawers and closets had been emptied, furniture was torn apart, and poor Hedwig had been murdered. The scene in Harry's bedroom had been so awful that he spent a week sleeping at Jacob's house. Leah and Seth had performed the awful task of gathering the remains of the owl and cleaning up the house. All of Harry's sheets had to be replaced because of the stains. The locks on the front door had to be replaced, of course.

The teen had been so shaken by the incident that Leah didn't think he would ever feel safe in his own home again. Things got worse when he realized that some of his clothes were missing. The working theory was that the vampires had stolen some of his personal items so that they would be able to track his scent later.

"Penny for you thoughts," Harry said, drawing Leah out of her thoughts once more.

If she was surprised that he had woken up so soon, she didn't show it. "I was just thinking about your leech."

"_Edward_," Harry stressed the name, "has been very nice to you and your pack recently. He's making an effort."

It was true. Edward Cullen had gone out of his way to be accommodating. On the day that Harry had told the vampire of his illness, Edward actually called Jacob to not only let the pack know that Harry was safe with him but also to _thank_ the pack for all it had done for the boy. He had gone so far as to actually swear to Jacob that he would pay back the pack's kindness. Jacob, of course, made it clear that their actions hadn't been for his benefit, only Harry's. Repayment was neither expected nor desired.

The vampire had been very respectful of Harry's desire to be on friendly terms with both the coven and the pack and had shown an immense amount of restraint in not reacting to any of the packmembers' baiting. In a surprising response to Edward's efforts, Sam had relented on his demand that the mind reader not be allowed anywhere near any of the werewolves. Edward was allowed to be near Harry whenever he was off of Reservation land, regardless of the presence of members of the pack.

There was a question that had been nagging at Leah for days now and, despite her better judgment, she decided to use Harry's current level of lucidity to go ahead and ask it. "Harry, if it wouldn't break the treaty, would you let Edward make you into a vampire?"

Harry's eyes widened in surprise at the question. He quickly cast them downward to the box on his lap. "Honestly? I don't know."

"You don't know?" Leah asked. She had thought that with the amount of time Harry had had alone with his thoughts lately, he would have reached some opinion on the matter.

"I love Edward. But there is a part of me that still isn't sure that I could give up being human. I didn't think much of it last year when he would point out on all of the experiences I would miss by becoming a vampire, but I think about those things a lot these days. On the other hand, I may not get those experiences anyway. So why not just take the plunge?"

"You shouldn't talk like that," Leah reprimanded.

"Someone has to," Harry said as he returned his gaze to Leah. "I'm gonna keep trying to fight this thing, but even I realize that I'm losing."

"No you aren't," Leah said almost desperately.

"Leah, we gotta face this. There is a very good chance that my life is about to come to an end. I can feel it. Everyday I can feel myself slipping a bit. Things that I used to be able to do are getting difficult. I can barely go to the loo by myself some days."

The werewolf could see real fear in Harry's eyes as they welled with tears. She had seen his eyes become watery after being sick in the bathroom, but she'd never seen him actually cry. Not even when Hedwig died. He hadn't cried since Edward had left him the previous year.

Harry's shoulders shook as he tried to contain himself, but he just couldn't. Leah reached forward and took the teen in a hug. He returned the gestured and buried his face in her neck.

"I'm so afraid. I-I don't want to die, Leah," the boy said, his voice cracking. Leah could feel Harry's tears on her neck.

She held the boy as he cried for several minutes. He eventually exhausted himself and fell back asleep. Leah gently repositioned him so that he was lying down. She did her best not to think about what Harry had said. Or how he had said it with such fear and desperation. It didn't work. Everything else that she tried to think about led her thoughts back around to her best friend and how the frustration and pain of this bad day had finally cracked his resolve.

It was in that moment, as she watched Harry Potter sleeping, that Leah realized she hated Sam Uley. She could forgive him for leaving her for her cousin, Emily. She could forgive him for the hurt he had caused her. But she just couldn't forgive him for this: for denying Harry the choice of whether of not to become a vampire. It wasn't like Harry would hurt anyone as a vampire. The Cullens would make sure that he was kept away from humans until he had the necessary self-control to live among them safely.

Rational or not, in Leah's mind, Sam was as responsible for Harry's suffering as the damn disease.

Leah heard the sound of Jacob's Rabbit pulling into the driveway behind her truck. She got up from her seated position as easily and quietly as she could and went outside to meet him.

"What are you doing out here?" Jacob asked her in surprise as his packmate approached.

"I'm going out for a bit. Harry's asleep, try not to wake him," she practically snapped.

She didn't spare Jacob anything more than a momentary glace as she walked back towards and then around Harry's house. As soon as she reached the edge of the woods that abutted the boy's backyard, she started to run at a dead sprint. Once she was out of range of any human, she shifted into the form of a large, grey wolf. She didn't give a damn about the clothes she tore to shreds in the process. She just kept running.

Finally, after she had run herself to exhaustion, she let loose a cry of rage and anguish that scared away all of the animals that could hear it.

It had been a bad day.


	17. Chapter 17

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 17: Alice and Jasper**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Sixteen – Alice and Jasper**

In terms of symptoms and side effects, it was a medium day for Jay Harris, AKA Harry Potter. It was two weeks to the day since Harry had been told that his cancer had spread throughout his lymphatic system. He had had chemo the day before and—despite once again feeling like a pin cushion—had been required to come in today for tests.

After Harry had revealed during the course of the initial check-up phase that his joints were hurting, his breathing was becoming increasing labored for seemingly simple tasks, and he was suffering from a constant fever, Doctor Sheldon had ordered a wide variety of tests. The boy was sitting quietly in the oncologist's office following his chest x-ray. Alice Cullen had taken off of school for the day in order to stay with him.

Things were still a bit awkward between the two. They hadn't really had a chance to talk to one another. Harry had been poked, prodded, scanned, or unconscious for every appreciable stretch of time they had spent together.

Honestly, Harry wasn't upset with her anymore. He understood why the family left, he understood why Alice hadn't said goodbye, and he understood why she hadn't contacted him while she was away. Harry had forgiven her; he just hadn't had a chance to clear the air. And, it appeared, Alice was far too considerate of his condition to try and talk to Harry when he looked like a meaningful conversation might just do him in. The boy, however, was tired of the separation; he wanted his friend back.

"Alice?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"Why aren't we talking? We're sitting in a completely silent office and we're not saying anything to each other. Why?" the boy questioned.

"Because I don't know what to say," Alice admitted after a brief pause.

"I don't like this," Harry said as he motioned at the space between the pair. "This distance between us. It's not right. We're friends. We should be able to talk."

Alice looked up at Harry in surprise.

"What?" the boy asked as he took in his companion's expression.

"It's just . . . I thought you were mad at me. I didn't realize . . ." the immortal trailed off.

"Didn't realize what?"

"I thought maybe you didn't want to be my friend anymore because of the way I treated you," the immortal confessed.

"What? You thought I'd forgive Edward and not you?" Harry's voice cracked a bit as he spoke. He sounded parched.

"It's different with Edward. You didn't really move on from your relationship with him after he left. You are still in love with him. But with me . . . You have a new best friend. Two of them, if I'm not mistaken," Alice explained somberly.

Harry could hear a bit of jealousy in the female vampire's voice. With how well she typically controlled her tone, Harry had to wonder if she was intentionally conveying her feelings on the matter to him or if she was just that emotional about the topic. Either way, he reached his hand over the divide between them and took her hand in his. "So what? I made other friends. You're still the first friend I made in Forks. And if I can have two best friends, why not three?"

Alice smiled at Harry and allowed him pull her hand over so that they were clasped together and dangling in the middle of the space between their two chairs.

"You know I'm sorry, right?" Alice asked.

"I do. And I already forgave you. I would have told you sooner, but, you know."

"I know," Alice said reassuringly. She turned to look away from Harry. She hesitated before continuing. "If the tests come back and they don't look good, Edward is planning to kidnap you."

Harry turned to Alice in alarm. "He can't."

"He will. And I'll help. So will Emmett. The others don't know about his plan, but I'm sure they'd help if they found out. Even Rosalie."

The wizard allowed Alice's words to hang in the air, unchallenged, for a bit before he responded. "You can't do that. Forks can't afford to lose any of its defenders."

"If we run with you, Victoria might follow us. Maybe we'd be protecting the town if we took you."

"'Might'? 'Maybe'?" Harry questioned.

"Everything is centered around you and I can't see the future of someone like you."

The wording intrigued Harry. Alice had never had a vision regarding Harry's future; that was why she was unaware of what the tests might show. His very existence seemed to elude her power. Neither Harry nor any of the Cullens had ever come up with a good explanation of why Alice couldn't see the boy's future, but they assumed it was for the same reason that Edward couldn't read his mind. The way she worded her statement sounded as if she had figured the reason out.

"What do you mean by 'someone like' me?"

"It's a theory I've been toying with lately. Well, it's really Jasper's theory. I can't see your future. I can't see the future of any of the werewolves either. Jasper suggested that perhaps my power is limited to things I can relate to." The vampire frowned for a moment and scrunched her face up in distaste. "No, that doesn't sound quite right. Let me rephrase it a bit. I can see the future of a human because I was a human. And I can see the future of a vampire because I am a vampire. I've never been either a wizard or a werewolf, so I can't see the future of anyone who is either one. Basically, I don't empathize with them well enough to see their futures."

Harry thought about what Alice said. "Okay," he said, drawing the word out in an exaggerated manner. Clearly, he got the gist of what he'd been told, but he was lost when it came to the details.

The response was met with a musical laugh from Alice. Her good humor was infectious and Harry soon found himself laughing right along with her. The pair was still laughing a minute later when Doctor Sheldon entered the room with Doctor Carlisle Cullen.

"Good afternoon, Jay" Carlisle greeted the boy by his alias. "Alice."

Doctor Sheldon seated himself behind the desk before he too greeted the pair. "Mr. Harris. Ms. Cullen. I was just consulting with Doctor Cullen about your case. He agreed that we should also do a CT scan before you leave."

"Why?" 'Jay' questioned.

"One of the major risk factors of the cancer having moved to most of your lymph nodes is that the cancer cells can now travel through your lymph fluid to other organs. We have to monitor you very carefully to make sure that tumors don't form."

"Tumors," the wizard said quietly. He had only had to deal with one tumor thus far and its location had made it easy for it to be removed without any complications. The idea of other tumors developing in his body while he sat there was a terrifying thought. What if he was developing tumors in his lungs and that was why he was having a hard time breathing lately?

Alice gave Harry's hand a nice, firm squeeze of reassurance.

After the CT scan and a good twenty minutes of Harry being sick in the one of the hospital's restrooms, Alice drove the boy home. Before they left the hospital, Carlisle promised to stop by later that afternoon to check up on Harry.

The human boy was resting in the passenger seat of the car with his head pressed against the window. The cold glass always felt wonderful on his face after being sick. "Do you think you can do me a favor?" Harry asked as they drove down the icy streets of Forks.

"Anything you want, _Harry_." Alice always did get a kick out of the whole double-life thing. At least she hadn't spent two months making secret agent references the way Emmett had.

"Can you get Jasper to come over this afternoon? I'd really like to talk to him."

Alice nodded her agreement. She would have voiced it if she could have made her voice work. Jasper had gone very far out of his way to avoid Harry. Except for the evening in which Harry had explained Victoria's presence to the Cullen coven and the afternoon in which Harry had revealed his cancer to the family, Jasper hadn't come close to interacting with Harry. The southern gentleman had been extremely careful to keep a good distance ever since he almost killed Harry the previous Christmas.

Regardless of Jasper's desire to give Harry plenty of space, he still came over to the human's house after school. Alice knew before she even called him that he would come if his presence was requested by Harry. Jasper felt that he owed the human the opportunity to yell at him. To blame him for all of the pain and loneliness he had suffered over the past year.

If Jasper hadn't attacked Harry, the Cullen family wouldn't have left. Edward and Harry would have remained a couple and Harry wouldn't have been depressed for months on end. Just as important, Harry would have had the Cullen family at his side during the entirety of his illness and Victoria's reign of terror. Maybe Victoria wouldn't have risked returning to Forks if the Cullens had remained. Maybe they would have been able to destroy her before she had the chance to create an army. Maybe the family would have taken Harry away from Forks when he was first diagnosed and turned him into a vampire before he had to endure so much.

"Hello, Jasper," Harry warmly greeted the vampire when he entered the home. Although Harry spent most days in bed, he had decided to spend the afternoon downstairs in his overstuffed recliner. He had changed out of the clothes he had worn to the hospital and into a pair of pajamas and a forest green robe that Carlisle had once mentioned as matching Edward's mortal eyes.

Jasper took this opportunity to examine the boy. He was visibly thinner than the previous year. In fact, he looked thinner than he had on the day he had come to the Cullen home and had his talk with Edward. He wasn't wearing his wig, but instead had donned a fleece nightcap. His features were drawn and his face looked feverish. Given the physical changes the boy was undergoing and had clearly been undergoing for quite some time, Jasper was amazed at how long the boy had managed to keep his condition a secret. It was a testament to his resourcefulness and strong-willed nature.

"How are you feeling?" Jasper asked stiffly.

"Today isn't so bad. I had chemo yesterday, so I can't hold anything down. And Doctor Sheldon has spent the whole morning running tests on me. But I'm able to get up and move around a bit," Harry answered. He got a thoughtful look on his face before asking, "It's alright coming in, isn't it? Doctor Sheldon drew blood and I'm not sure if you can smell it."

"I'm holding my breath," Jasper replied evenly.

"Good, I don't want you to be uncomfortable."

Jasper moved farther into the room and took a seat next to Alice on the couch. He didn't need to sit, but he found such human actions put people at ease. Even Harry, despite the boy's protestations that he was never put off by the inhuman actions of the immortals.

"I'm really glad you came," Harry said earnestly. "I was afraid you wouldn't. I see everyone else on a regular basis, even Rosalie. But I haven't really had the chance to see you yet."

"I thought it best to give you your space given what happened the last time I was in close proximity to you."

"I guessed as much. There really wasn't any need, though. I'm not upset with you," the teen said casually.

"You're not?" Jasper asked. He tried to keep his voice as flat and even as usual, but he failed. Even Harry, with his weak human hearing, was able to detect the surprise in the vampire's voce.

"Of course not," the wizard said as he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose with one finger. "Why would I be angry at you for something you can't control?"

"But I should have been able to control it," the male vampire said firmly.

"Have I ever told you about my cousin's eleventh birthday?"

If one were to make a list of everything Jasper and Alice had expected Harry to say, that sentence wouldn't have even made the top 1,000. The blond vampire furrowed his brow in confusion for a moment before replying in the negative.

"I forget sometimes which stories I've told to people other than Edward," Harry said as he massaged his forehead with his right hand. He lowered the hand before he began telling the story. "My aunt and uncle decided to take my cousin, Dudley, to the zoo for his eleventh birthday. I was brought along, though I honestly don't know why.

"We were looking at the reptiles. I ended up speaking to a snake. It was the first time I ever spoke to a snake. Anyway, Uncle Vernon," Harry said the name with distaste, "had tried to wake it earlier so that it could entertain Dudley, but the snake didn't move. After it responded to me speaking to it, Dudley decided to get me out of the way so that he could get a better look at the snake. He punched me in the ribs hard enough that he knocked me to the floor." Harry paused a moment as he relived the memory in his own mind. "I remember being so angry at Dudley. The next moment, the glass was gone and the snake was free."

Jasper allowed a few seconds for the story to sink in before asking, "You removed the glass with magic?"

"Yes," Harry confirmed. "It was a bit of accidental magic; totally out of my control. That sort of thing gets better with age and practice."

"I understand what you're trying to do, Harry. You're trying to draw a comparison between making that glass disappear and what I did last year. The situations are totally different. You could have died because of my lapse in control," Jasper said.

"I left out a detail or two," Harry said with a dismissive wave of his hand. He paused at that point in his story for a few moments so that he cough. The teen shook harsly as he hacked. When he finished, he swallowed hard several times and then cleared his throat. "Sorry about that. Where was I? Oh, yes: the part I left out. I didn't tell you about the snake I was talking to. It was a Brazilian boa constrictor so large that I'm pretty sure it could have wrapped itself around Edward's Volvo a couple of times. It was the largest snake they had. And I made the glass that was separating it from my cousin disappear because I got angry at him."

Jasper kept his face impassive at that information, but Alice's eyes widened almost comically. She was far too used to imitating a human, Harry mused.

"The snake didn't hurt anyone. It snapped at my cousin a bit, but it didn't attack or anything. The point of the story, Jasper, is that we all have our little lapses in control. I unleashed a potentially deadly snake on my cousin, Edward entertains thoughts of murdering one of his classmates, Emmett has killed two of his own singers, and you lunged at me when I got a paper cut. Edward and Carlisle managed to intervene before you hurt me, so there was no real harm done. Shit happens. We learn and then we move on."

"How eloquent," Jasper said dryly.

The human burst out laughing at the vampire's statement. "You told a joke! I've never heard you crack a joke before!"

Harry's good humor caused the last of Jasper's tension to melt away. The rest of the afternoon, as a result, was far more relaxed. Harry was quite pleased himself. He had achieved another goal: he had thawed his relationships with both Jasper and Alice. If the worst should happen, it was one less regret he would take with him.


	18. Chapter 18

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 18: Preparation and Deterioration**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Seventeen – Preparation and Deterioration**

Harry allowed the day to continue at its peaceful pace for several hours before talking about anything else that would qualify, in Emmett's terms, as 'heavy.' It was nearing five o'clock in the evening when the teen decided to bring up a topic that he'd been mulling over for a couple of days.

"Alice, would you please go over to my desk?" Harry requested.

Wordlessly, Alice did as he asked. Once she was standing next to the cluttered desk that had been pushed into the far corner of the room, she turned back to Harry expectantly.

"Please open the top right drawer. Inside you'll find an envelope."

Alice opened the indicated drawer and fished out an envelope. It was a fairly plain, white envelope. The only thing remarkable about it at all was the name written on the outside in dark ink: 'Edward.'

The petite vampire turned the envelope over in her hands several times. Although she tried not to jump to conclusions about what she was holding, she knew in her heart what it was.

"I'm entrusting this to you. Give it to Edward if . . . well . . ." her human friend trailed off.

Although it weighed practically nothing in her hand, the envelope suddenly felt as though it was crushing her. "Are you sure?" she asked Harry. "You can just tell him everything you want to say."

"I'm positive about this. Edward knows how I feel. Just as I know how he feels. The point of that letter isn't so that Edward will know how I feel, it's so that he remembers it. I want him to have something solid. Something concrete that he can hold in his hand and read and never have any doubts about its truth," Harry said. "When he took back all of the evidence of our relationship with one another, he hoped that that it would be like it was nothing more than a dream. Something that didn't really matter. I don't want that for him."

The teen let out a little cough before turning to Jasper. "I have something I want you to do as well, Jasper. If you're up for it."

The blonde vampire responded immediately. "Name it."

"Keep a close on him. I . . ." Harry paused for a minute mid-sentence to try and perfect what he wanted to say. "I don't want him left alone. He broods. He dwells on things. I don't want him to do anything that he'll end up regretting. I want you to keep an eye on him and his emotions. If you think that he's going to do something awful, please stop him."

"He's my brother," Jasper said firmly. "I'd never allow him to hurt himself."

"Just the same, promise me. Please." There was a very noticeable quiver in Harry's voice. Jasper knew that the boy was trying to hold himself together. He was more concerned about Edward's well-being than his own survival.

"I promise you, Harry. I will allow no harm to come to Edward."

The human smiled at Jasper and Alice. He hated to ask these things of them, but he felt he had no choice. He needed to make sure the Edward was taken care of. The reassurance that Edward would always have a piece of Harry with him and that Jasper would make sure that Edward coped with what was very likely to come was an incredible relief to the teen.

Carlisle and Edward joined Jasper, Alice, and Harry a short while later. Carlisle was angrier than Harry had ever seen him. Evidently, a lab technician at Forks General had somehow caused 'catastrophic equipment failure' necessitating that all of Harry's blood work be sent to Port Angeles for processing. Fortunately, Doctor Cullen was able to put a rush order on the samples, so they would—in theory—be available the next day at about the same time that Doctor Sheldon was ready to discuss the results of the x-ray and CT scan.

As he did every time he visited Harry, Carlisle took a moment to examine the boy himself. He respected Doctor Sheldon, but the enhanced senses of a vampire were simply better at detecting the changes in Harry's condition. It had become routine for Doctor Cullen to re-do all of the same physical exams that Doctor Sheldon had done only hours earlier.

"Hmmm," the vampire hummed as he listened to the boy's chest through a stethoscope.

"What?" Edward asked urgently.

"There is definitely an obstruction of some kind in his lungs," the physician explained.

"Like a tumor?" Harry asked, a knot forming in his stomach.

"To be frank, I'm not sure. It could be a tumor. Or it could be one of any number of other obstructions." Doctor Cullen tapped Harry on the chest and continued to listen. "I can definitely hear a bit of fluid, but it doesn't sound like enough fluid to account for the level of obstructed air flow."

The doctor continued to listen to Harry's breathing as he moved the stethoscope up along his chest. "I think that there is some fluid in your lungs, but also a minor obstruction a bit higher up. A cyst, perhaps. Maybe some swelling from an infection. I won't know for sure until the CT scan results come back tomorrow."

"What can we do in the meantime?" Edward asked. "Can you give him something so that he can breathe a bit easier?"

"At the moment, I'd just advise plenty of rest. He should refrain from doing anything too strenuous."

"That's it?" Edward asked in frustration, drawing a hand through his unruly copper hair. "Can't you give him antibiotics or something? That would help if it is an infection."

"I don't know for sure that it is an infection. I have no way of knowing at this point if antibiotics would be effective. Given his condition, I simply can't risk prescribing something without knowing what I'm trying to treat. The side effects of prescribing the wrong medication at this stage could be disastrous," Carlisle explained in an attempt to calm his son down. "The fluid alone . . . it could be the start of a case of pneumonia or heart condition. It's just too risky to give Harry something without having the test results in hand."

"So we just wait?" the bronze-haired vampire asked. Defeat laced his voice.

"It's not like I was planning to go out dancing or anything, Edward," Harry interjected in a tired voice. "Lying in bed all night and all day tomorrow was the plan anyway."

Edward frowned at his father before moving to Harry's side. He noted that it looked like the boy was having a hard time keeping himself upright. The wizard smiled warmly at his vampire before sliding to the left side of the bed and patting the right side, clearly inviting Edward to sit next to him.

The vampire had no sooner situated himself on the offered space when Harry linked their arms together. Edward swallowed hard when Harry leaned over and rested his head upon the immortal's shoulder. Harry was asleep in a matter of moments.

Carlisle watched the scene play out in front of him with barely contained anxiety. It pained him in ways he'd never felt before to watch as Edward, the first of his vampire family, and Harry, whom he had hoped to be his next son, suffered so much. Edward had spent the better part of a century alone, waiting to find his true love the way the rest of his family had. The vampire had waited patiently as Carlisle found Esme and Rosalie found Emmett. He never voiced his loneliness, not even when Alice and Jasper—already deeply in love—joined the coven. Edward had finally found his soul mate in the green-eyed boy. And now he was watching, utterly powerless, as he was eaten alive by his own body. Carlisle's son was careful to never express his grief in front of Harry, but he knew that the human could see it in his eyes.

Harry's time was running out and Carlisle feared what Edward might do upon the boy's death.

With a grim expression, Carlisle motioned for Jasper and Alice to leave with him. They would give Edward and Harry their privacy.

Harry slept fitfully for the rest of the afternoon and the first half of the night. His cough, which had only been a minor and occasional inconvenience the previous day, worsened significantly in the early hours of the morning. By 3:00 A.M., Harry was coughing so hard and so long that he couldn't sleep anymore. The hacking was so violent that he involuntarily wrapped his free arm against his stomach and brought his legs up towards his chest. Edward rubbed small circles on Harry's back. It was a small gesture, but Harry found it immensely comforting.

By six in the morning, Harry was feeling truly awful. His stomach was upset, his head was pounding, and every joint in his body ached horribly. He was shaking a bit and having a hard time speaking without stuttering a word or two every sentence. The worst symptoms, however, were the alternating hot and cold flashes. Edward was kind enough to stay with Harry when he was hot and give him his space when he was cold. Grudgingly, Edward found himself wishing that Leah Clearwater or Jacob Black was present to keep his love warm.

It was during one of the periods in which Harry was chilled to the bone that the human decided to try and strike up a conversation in an attempt to take his mind off of how he felt. "D-Do you think that Voldemort is s-still alive?"

The question caught Edward off guard. He didn't want Harry focusing on such things, but it wasn't like he had anything better to talk about. "I'd like to think not. I'd like to think he's died some horrible, painful death."

Harry let out light chuckle that quickly turned into a cough. "I'd like to think that, t-too. But I want to know whether y-you actually think he's dead."

Edward answered honestly. "I just don't know. When I was away, I spent some time planning to go to England and killing Voldemort myself. I started to look into what was going on around London. I hoped that there would be some clue as to what that devil was up to. There were disappearances and unusual disasters, but not an alarming number. If he's alive, he's not making himself known to the non-magical world. Whatever mess he's making, it's surprisingly discrete."

Harry sighed heavily. "I a-always intended on going back after I turned seventeen. I even promised Hermione that I would in that letter I sent her."

"The British Deadline," the vampire said.

"Yeah. Voldemort killed my p-p-parents, I couldn't just sit by and let him have his way. I promised myself that even if I had to hide out and be a f-fugitive like Sirius, I'd fight him." Harry fell silent for a few moments before continuing. "C-can you imagine me going back to Britain l-like this?" Harry asked rhetorically with a bitter laugher. "I survived the worst c-c-curse ever, and I'm taken down by my own body. Bet Malfoy would have a good laugh at that. I get an illness that wizards hardly ever get. One that magic c-can't cure."

Leah had suggested, when Harry was first diagnosed, that he try to make contact with American wizards in the hope that they would have a cure for his illness. Sadly, Harry already knew that they didn't. Wizards tended to suffer from different diseases than muggles, like dragon pox. It was only wizards and witches who had Muggle blood in their veins that suffered from Muggle illnesses. Healers—whose research was funded almost exclusively by old, Pureblood families and, by extension, the Ministry of Magic—couldn't cure most magical ailments and spent very little energy working on the non-magical kind; they left the treatment of diseases like cancer to Muggle doctors. In short, there was no magical cure for cancer. If there was, Harry would probably hate wizardkind for keeping it from the rest of the world.

Harry abruptly ended his conversation with Edward when a sudden pain in his stomach forced him curl tightly into a fetal position. The pain was intense and it made his eyes tear up. He was taking deep, sharps breaths to cope with the pain.

"We can go right now," Edward said quietly in his ear. "Say the word and I'll take you away from here."

"N-no. The t-treaty," Harry rasped out.

"Forget about it, Harry. Just let me take you away from here."

The teen managed to uncurl out of the ball he had pulled himself into and push himself upright. "I won't s-sacrifice the lives of the people here just to s-save my own skin."

"Why?" Edward asked desperately. "Why can't we be selfish, just this once?"

"I've been selfish for a long time, Edward. I need to think about everyone else for a change. And besides, you're not selfish at all," Harry said breathlessly. He managed to re-position himself so that he was sitting upright with his legs tucked underneath him. He was looking directly into Edward's dark eyes as he spoke. "You know that w-we'd regret it forever if we just let all of these people die."

"Not as much I'll regret losing you. I would pay any price to keep you with me. I'd damn myself to Hell a thousand times over and it would be a mere pittance."

Harry leaned himself forward so that his head was resting in the crook of Edward's neck. He allowed himself to stay that way for quite some time, just enjoying the vampire's strong presence.

"If you won't let me take you from this place, then will you at least stop hiding from me, Harry?" Edward said as he gently rubbed the back of the boy's head.

Harry knew what Edward was asking. It frightened him, but he complied. With eyes clinched shut, Harry pulled back from Edward and, with shaking hands, slowly pulled the nightcap off of his head. He hadn't allowed anyone to see him without either his wig or nightcap on since he lost his hair over six months before.

A moment later, Harry felt Edwards cold hands on the back of his bald head. The vampire gently pulled Harry forward so that he was once again resting against the immortal.

"Just as perfect as ever," Edward whispered lightly into the human's ear.

Had the words come from anyone else in the entire world, Harry wouldn't have believed them.


	19. Chapter 19

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 19: Seth**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Eighteen – Seth**

Edward found himself becoming a bit anxious as the morning progressed. Seth Clearwater was scheduled to come over mid-morning and stay with Harry throughout the day. It wasn't that he didn't like the young werewolf, he just didn't feel comfortable leaving Harry's well-being solely in the hands of the 'pup,' as Harry had been known to affectionately call him.

The entire coven was going to be out of Forks for the day. In their collective desire to remain as close to Harry as possible, they had all gone as long as they could manage without feeding. It was necessary, therefore, for them to spend the day eating their fill from the area wildlife. Unfortunately, with a coven of their size, they were going to need to spread out and hunt throughout a twenty-five square mile area in order to remain unnoticed by both Victoria and the human population.

The situation was complicated by the internal politics of the werewolf pack. Edward hadn't been close enough to any member of the pack when the specifics of fight were being thought of to hear about it telepathically, but he knew that there had been a row regarding Harry. Now, no member of the pack—save for Seth, Leah, and Jacob—would come near Harry's house. Leah and Jacob had been on patrol duty the night before, so Seth was the only one both able and willing to spend the day with Harry.

Truth be told, there was another reason that Edward didn't particularly like leaving Harry alone with Seth: the young werewolf was in love with Harry. Edward didn't think, even for a moment, that Harry would return the feelings, but he was afraid that Seth couldn't keep his mouth shut. Although he was only thirteen years old, his werewolf genes had caused him to develop physically into a twenty-year-old man. The rapid change had resulted in Seth going through puberty in a very short period of time. He had certain . . . desires that he was trying hard to control.

If Seth gave in to his desire and confessed his feelings to Harry, the resulting situation would be terrible. Harry cared for Seth as a brother, nothing more. Seth's feelings would be hurt and Harry would feel guilty for causing that hurt. Any confession of love by Seth to Harry would, undoubtedly, sour the relationship and cause Harry unneeded stress and pain.

If the vampire had been asked to pick which, if any, of the werewolves was in love with the wizard, it would have been Jacob Black. After being in Jacob's presence for a few moments, however, that thought was dispelled. Jacob, much like Leah Clearwater, saw Harry as a younger brother. Besides, Jacob was falling very hard for Bella Swan. Seth Clearwater's thoughts regarding Harry, by comparison, ranged from those of brotherly adoration to those that were sweaty and, in Edward's opinion, highly inappropriate for a thirteen-year-old.

Seth arrived shortly after ten that morning. His greeting to Edward was a bit stiff for the usually exuberant teen, but still more natural than the sort of greeting the vampire received from any of the other shapeshifters. By the time the younger boy entered Harry's room, his usual enthusiasm had returned.

"Heya, Harry! I brought us plenty of reading material to pass the day with!" Seth practically gushed. He carried with him a large stack of at least twenty comic books.

"Hey, pup," Harry said, using his affectionate nickname for Seth. The words had just escaped his mouth when he turned to the side and began to cough. Although most of the symptoms that had assaulted Harry a few hours earlier —including the hot and cold flashes and the terrible stuttering—had abated, the cough remained with a vengeance.

Seth's enthusiasm faded away quickly as he moved to the wizard's side. "Is there anything I can get you?"

"No. Edward's got me well-stocked on bottled water and crackers," Harry replied as he motioned to his nightstand before taking a moment to adjust his glasses and make sure his nightcap hadn't been knocked off during his hacking. "Your company is all I need."

The werewolf perked up at the last part.

Harry shifted his attention back to the vampire. "Have a good day, Edward. Make sure you take down a mountain lion or two."

Edward gave Harry one final smile before leaving for the day.

"So," Seth started as he plopped himself down on the foot of Harry's bed, "what do you want to start with? I tried to grab a bunch of different comics."

"Whatever you recommend is good with me," Harry said.

Seth looked through his stack of comics for a moment before handing the wizard a handful. "Start with these."

The pair sat in silence for the better part of an hour as they read the comics. Seth's presence was fairly nice, but he had the bad habit of looking up to check on Harry once every minute or two. The British boy assumed it was just because Seth was worried about himin a very general sense; it turned out that Seth was much more observant than Harry gave him credit for.

"Do you mind handing me issue four?" Seth asked.

Harry looked down at the comics spread out in front of him. He picked the fourth comic out of the stack and handed it to Seth. The werewolf frowned.

"This is issue three," Seth pointed out. Harry, apparently, didn't realize that the comics he had been handed began with a prequel: issue zero.

"Oh," Harry said in embarrassment. "Sorry about that." He picked the next issue from the stack and handed it Seth. "Here you go."

Seth was still frowning at him. "What did you think of the part where the bad guy demanded a hundred-billion dollars from the president?"

The older teen forced a laugh. "I thought it was pretty over the top."

"That's funny. I didn't think that. Then again, it never happened," Seth pointed out.

Harry's forced smile melted away from his face. He looked back down at the comics in front of him.

"If you didn't want to read them, you could have just said something," Seth said gently. Sure, he was disappointed that Harry hadn't liked his gesture, but he didn't want him to just sit there being bored out his mind either.

"It isn't that, Seth."

"Then what is it?"

Harry hesitated before continuing. "I can't see straight," he confessed in a small voice. "I've been trying to read them, but I can't make out most of the words."

"Shouldn't we get you to a doctor then?" the shapeshifter asked in rising alarm.

"Doctor Sheldon said that it was a possible side effect of the new chemo. It's just . . . it's new. I haven't experienced this before," Harry explained.

"Did you tell Edward?" Seth inquired. He didn't really like the vampire, but he understood his importance to Harry. If the wizard cared for the leech, Seth could at least drop the hostility around Harry.

"No. Didn't you see how dark his eyes have gotten? Or the big, purple bruises under his eyes? He needs to eat. If I told I was having trouble seeing, he would have just worried. He wouldn't have gone."

"Well, if you can't read, you wanna watch tv or something?"

"How about we just talk for a bit," Harry suggested. "Leah and Jacob haven't been by much when I was conscious. I'm interested in what's new on the Rez." The 'Rez,' of course, was short for 'Reservation.'

"Oh, you haven't heard the big news, have you?" Seth paused and waited for Harry to shake his head. "We've got two new packmates. Collin and Brady transformed two nights ago."

"Really?" Harry said in surprise. "Collin and Brady," he thought for a moment. "I think I've met them. They're in the same year as your, right?"

"Yup," Seth replied. "But, they're both a couple of months younger than me." The way the wolf-changer said the last part made Harry think that Seth had been lording his experience over the younger teens.

"So, you're not the 'pup' of the pack anymore. I'll have to find a new nickname to call you by." Harry said with a smile. He laughed for a moment, but it was cut off by another round of coughing. He took a deep breath after he stopped hacking. "What else is new?" he asked, trying to keep the focus off of himself.

Seth's face took on a very apprehensive look. Harry knew the boy well enough to spot when he was trying to think up a lie: his lips tightened into a thin line and he started to blink rapidly. "You're a horrible liar, so you might as well tell me the truth."

Seth heaved a big sigh before beginning. "There's a pretty big fight going on. About you, actually."

"Me?" the wizard asked in surprise.

"Yeah. Leah said that Sam's letting his hatred of the Cullens cloud his judgment. That you should be allowed to make the decision about whether or not to, y'know, become on of _them_." The word 'them' was stressed in a way that left no doubt about what Seth was referring to. "Sam has been arguing back that Leah's just bustin' his chops because she can, but we all know that's a lie because we all know what she's thinking."

Seth was referring to the pack mentality of the shapechangers. Whenever a member of the pack was in wolf form, he was privy to the thoughts of all of the other members of the pack in wolf form and vice versa.

"Jacob got real pissed about that. He didn't like that Sam would bother trying to lie when we all know that Leah's angry about Sam taking the choice out of your hands. Then Jacob started saying that if Sam was gonna try and lie to us and if he wasn't willing to look at things objectively, then maybe he shouldn't be leadin' the pack anymore."

"Wow," was all that Harry could say to that. Being a descendant of the last alpha, Ephriam Black, Jacob was the alpha of the pack by blood, but he'd always let Sam run things. Jacob had always said he had no interest in being the leader. It seemed that he just needed the proper motivation.

"Things have been getting really bad since then. Jacob and Leah have started making threats about what will happen if Sam doesn't change his mind. They keep pointing out that the Cullens will take good care of you and make sure you only eat animals. And they bring up the fact that we wouldn't have even known what that red-headed vampire was after or that the vampires she's making are really powerful because they're newborns if you hadn't told us. So, we kinda owe you. Leah says that Sam is enforcing the letter of the treaty, but not the spirit."

"Seems like I cause problems without even trying," Harry said somberly.

The pair lapsed back into silence after Harry's statement. The non-practicing wizard was worried about what lengths Leah and Jacob might go to in order to defy Sam on this issue. Sam, as the pack alpha, had the power of injunction. That is, he had the power to give an order as alpha with such force that the members of the pack would be physically unable to defy him. Sam didn't like to use the power, but he would if he had to. Jacob, on the other hand, was the rightful alpha of the pack. Was it possible that he would forcibly take the position of alpha from Sam over this issue? Harry couldn't help but wonder.

Harry's thoughts were cut off by the musical ring of his mobile phone. He absently reached over to the nightstand, picked the electronic device up, and flipped it up. "Hello?"

"Hello, Jay. This is Doctor Sheldon," came the doctor's unusually warm voice. "I just got your test results back from Port Angeles. I'm looking at them right now."

Harry waited for the doctor to continue, but no sound came from the other end of the line.

"Hello? Doctor Sheldon?" the teen questioned.

The other end of the line remained silent for several moments before the call was disconnected. The ailing boy immediately dialed the doctor's office back. The phone rang several times before the messaging service picked up. Harry flipped his phone closed. A knot of worry was forming in the pit of his stomach.

"What's up?" Seth asked.

"I don't know. Doctor Sheldon said he had my test results-" Harry's explanation was broken off for the better part of minute as he coughed. After he regained his composure, he began speaking again. "The line just went dead."

"Dead?"

"It was quiet for a spell, and then we got disconnected. I tried calling back, but I didn't get an answer. I'm sure its nothing, but I'd rather know the test results sooner rather than later."

"Don't look at me, I don't have a car."

Harry looked beyond Seth to the window. "I think Chief Swan's got the weekend off. You mind going over and asking him if he'd give me a ride to the hospital?"

"I don't know. I don't think you're supposed to be going anywhere."

"It's to the hospital. If I get sick or anything, then I'm already going to be in the best place to get help, right?"

Seth grumbled for a minute before getting up and going next door to ask Charlie Swan for the ride. Less than twenty minutes later, Seth and Harry—dressed in normal street clothes and with his wig back on—were walking down the halls of Forks General. Harry's movements were so unsteady that he had to keep a hand on the wall most of the time. Seth tried to help, but the wizard insisted that he could manage.

The area around Doctor Sheldon's office was deserted, but that was typical. The oncologist was good at what he did, but his typically abrasive attitude made him the least liked of all of the doctors in town. It was a stark contrast to Carlisle Cullen.

Harry knocked on the door to the man's office three times before checking the door. Harry turned the knob and found that it was unlocked. Seeing no reason not to, the teen went ahead and pushed the door open. The office was totally dark; the lights were off and the drapes were pulled shut. The knot in Harry's stomach was twisting awfully. He reached out and flipped on the light.

The knot eased significantly when he found that the office looked the way it normally did. He was just about to turn the lights back off and leave when he noticed something small and black sticking out from behind the desk. Harry took a careful step forward, Seth on his heels. As the boy moved farther into the room, he found that the little bit of black was actually part of a black dress shoe.

After another couple of steps, Harry could make out a pair of legs on the floor sticking out from behind the desk.


	20. Chapter 20

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 20: Time's Up**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Nineteen – Time's Up**

Harry walked around the desk. He wasn't surprised in the least to find that the legs belonged to Doctor Sheldon. What did shock him, however, were his torn clothes and the large wound on the junction between his neck and shoulder.

The oncologist wasn't just dead, he'd been murdered. By a vampire.

The scene caused his already nauseas stomach to do cartwheels. The wizard stumbled backwards. He would have collapsed entirely if Seth hadn't reached out his arms and caught hold of him.

"That red-headed vampire has been here," Seth said quietly, his eyes darting about the room as he searched for any sign of danger. "And only in here. I couldn't even smell her in the hall. She's not here anymore, though."

A sudden realization hit Harry like a truck. He managed to regain his footing on the floor and walk over to the desk. The usual assortment of knick-knacks and office supplies were spread out, but there was no trace of what the teen was looking for.

_I'm looking at them right now._

Doctor Sheldon's words nagged at Harry's mind. The man had been looking at his file when he called Harry. The file should have been sitting on top of the desk.

"She knows," Harry said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"What?" Seth questioned.

"My file is gone. Victoria knows that I'm sick. She knows that if she's going to get to kill me, she has to act now," Harry turned around to look at Seth. "She's not going to wait any longer. She's gonna hit hard. And soon." There was clear panic rising in his voice.

"W-What do we do?"

"Go. Go now." Harry ordered.

"That's you plan? I'm supposed to leave you with a dead body?"

Harry shushed the boy before continuing. "You've got to warn the pack. Get out of here and transform so that the pack knows what's going on." The boy's instructions broke off for a short moment while he coughed.

"What about the body?" Seth said, referring to Doctor Sheldon.

Harry cleared his throat and looked back down at the man that had kept him alive for so many months. The knowledge that he had brought this fate upon the man caused guilt to eat away at him. "I'll count to twenty after you've left and then scream. That will get someone down here. I'll have to stick around for a bit, but it shouldn't be too long. Chief Swan will insist that someone come and pick me up. I'll be able to call Doctor Cullen then."

"But-" Seth began to protest.

"We've got no time to argue, Seth," Harry snapped. "Now do as I say," he commanded.

Reluctantly, Seth left Harry alone in the office. The boy began to silently count in his head. He tried not to look over at the corpse, but he couldn't help himself; the guilt was just too great.

When Harry reached 'seventeen Mississippi,' he doubled over and threw up all over the floor of the office. He spent several moments spitting bile out into the mess before he was able regain his composure. He stood up straight and let out the loudest scream he could muster.

It was only a few seconds before a nurse came rushing into the room from somewhere down the hall. She reached the boy's side and then promptly began to scream as well. Her shriek was much louder and piercing than Harry's had been and was bound to have alerted far more people. Hell, people across town probably heard her.

The next few minutes passed in a blur. Harry was eventually taken out of the room by an elderly female doctor that he'd never met before. She sat him down in the lobby and started ordering one of the calmer nurses to bring him juice; the doctor seemed quite concerned about him going into shock.

Chief Swan arrived a few minutes later. The quick response was to be expected; he probably hadn't even gotten back to his house from dropping Harry and Seth off at the hospital when he got the message about the bloody corpse. After giving the teen a quick once-over to make sure he wasn't hurt, he moved swiftly down the hall to examine Doctor Sheldon's office. For the first time since he had screamed, Harry was left alone. He used the opportunity to call Doctor Cullen.

The vampire answered on the first ring. "Harry?"

"Yeah, it's me," the boy replied in a shaky voice. He was struggling hard to keep from crying. "You need to come to the hospital. Doctor Sheldon is dead."

"Dead?" Carlisle asked in alarm.

"He called about my test results. When I got to his office, he was dead. He has this horrible wound on his neck. Like he'd been bitten by some kind of animal," Harry said. He had to be careful of what he said because there was a chance that people were eavesdropping in an attempt to glean some good gossip material from the teen. He picked his words carefully; his description would tell Carlisle that Doctor Sheldon had been murdered by Victoria while, at the same time, keeping any potential audience members from knowing what was up.

"Edward's already heading your direction," Doctor Cullen said before hanging up.

Harry flipped his phone shut just as Chief Swan emerged from the hallway leading to Doctor Sheldon's office.

"Jay," he greeted sympathetically. "I'm so sorry you had to see that."

"Thank you Chief Swan," Harry replied, his voice still shaking. He sniffed loudly before continuing. "I'm sorry I threw up in your crime scene."

"Not the first time somethin' like that's happened, won't be the last." The man assured Harry. "I need to ask you a couple of questions, just to make sure I've got all of the details straight."

"Sure, sure," Harry said before taking a drink of the orange juice one the nurses had brought him.

"You and Seth told me that you were coming here to discuss some test results, right? Relating to your illness?"

"That's correct," the boy replied. "I got a call from Doctor Sheldon earlier today telling me that some test results were in." Harry flipped his phone back open and showed the call's listing in the device's history. Chief Swan copied the information down on a small, white pad. He seemed very pleased to have the information because it narrowed down the time of death considerably.

"It says here that you called him back almost immediately," the man pointed out.

Harry cursed in his head for forgetting that detail and quickly formulated a lie. "When he called, I told that I'd be right over. I'd forgotten that everyone was busy today so there was no one I could catch a ride with. I tried to call him back, but he didn't answer. It was because I couldn't get a hold of him to let him know I'd have to come in later in the afternoon that I sent Seth over to see if we could catch a ride with you."

"Alright. Walk me through what happened after you got to the hospital."

The teen had already worked out his story for this part. "Seth walked me in. Once he was sure I'd gotten inside the hospital safely, Seth left to do some chores; I think he agreed to do some stuff at Billy Black's place, but I'm not positive. I knocked on the door to Doctor Sheldon's office a few times, but got no answer. The door was unlocked, so I opened it. The, uh, lights were off, so I figured he off doing something. I was just about to go to the nurses' station to have him paged when I thought that I heard something in the room. I turned on the lights and . . . that's when I found Doctor Sheldon."

"Is there anything else? Anything you might be leaving out?" Chief Swan pressed. "Like the sound? Do you have any idea what it might have been?"

"I'm sorry, Chief, I just don't know. It could have been papers rustling on his desk when I opened the door for all I know."

"It's okay, son. I know this is hard. Do you have anyone coming to pick you up?"

"We are!" Edward Cullen's voice called. The vampire was too far down the hall for a normal human to have heard Chief Swan's question, but the man didn't seem to notice.

"My parents are on their way," the immortal explained as he rushed towards the duo.

"Good," Chief Swan said sincerely. The man had always liked the Cullens and he much preferred the thought of them taking care of 'Jay' to the thought of the boy's uncle being responsible for him.

Carlisle and Esme entered the hospital only a few moments after Edward seated himself next to Harry. The intimate way in which Edward put his arm around the boy's shoulder got a couple of odd glances from hospital staffers, but most of them shrugged it off as a brotherly gesture. Edward's parents thanked Chief Swan for looking after 'Jay' and then hurried him out of the hospital. The rest of the coven was waiting outside.

The vampires all looked significantly better than the last time Harry had seen them. The dark bruises around their eyes were gone and the eyes themselves had returned to their amber color. But everyone looked anxious, so Harry didn't waste a moment.

"Victoria killed Doctor Sheldon and stole my file," he whispered in a way such that only the vampires could make out what he said. "Seth is warning the pack."

The gravity of the situation was not lost on any of the vampires. Victoria had Harry's medical records, which meant that she knew that he was running out of time. The flame-haired vampire blamed the boy for the death of her mate; there was no way in hell she would allow anything else to kill him.

Alice ran from the family at an inhuman speed. Harry sent a questioning look to Jasper.

"You and the wolves distort and obstruct her visions. She's trying to get enough distance to see when Victoria is going to attack," the blond vampire explained.

"But how will she see it if I obstruct her view? It's my future she's looking at."

"Simple," Rosalie answered in an uncharacteristically gentle manner. "Victoria is going to have to go through us to get to you. She's going to look into our futures."

"She'll meet us back at your house as soon as she knows something," Edward assured Harry. "And she'll know something as soon as Victoria makes up her mind."

The group traveled in silence to Harry's home. Each and every one of them was grappling with the concept that they would be fighting for their lives very soon.

Once back at Harry's home, Emmett moved through the house to the back door without skipping a beat. As soon as he had the door open, Sam, Leah, Jacob, and Seth entered. The vampire must have been able to smell the wolves waiting for them.

While the male werewolves remained just inside the door, Leah marched straight through the mess of vampires to Harry. She immediately engulfed the boy in a reassuring hug. The action pulled Harry a bit away from Edward.

"Are you okay?" she asked in his ear.

"As okay as I can be considering that I just got another person killed," Harry said. He pulled away from the young woman before breaking down into another coughing fit. Both Leah and Edward forced the boy to sit down on the couch once he started.

"So, um, is there any kind of plan here?" Seth questioned the group at large. "Beyond 'kill the badguys and don't die'?"

"We're working on one," Jasper explained. "Alice has gone to the outskirts of town to try and get a vision regarding how Victoria plans to attack. Once we know what she's going to do, we'll be able to figure out the best way to counter her."

All of Harry's house guests lapsed into a very tense silence at that point. Although Sam Uley had relented in his order that no werewolf was to be anywhere near Edward Cullen for fear of his mental abilities giving him access to sensitive information about the pack, he still wasn't comfortable around the 'leech.' In fact, he seemed pretty uncomfortable around all of the vampires, including innocent-looking Esme. The only break in the silence was the occasional cough from Harry.

Harry hated the silence. It made it hard to ignore how awful he felt, both physically and emotionally. As the day was wearing on, his symptoms were flaring again. Worse, however, was the awful guilt. He was responsible of all of this hardship and pain. Doctor Sheldon and all of the others whom Victoria had killed over the last nine months were dead because of Harry. And now, his friends and family were preparing to fight a war because of him. He wondered if he didn't deserve his illness. Deserve to die for it all.

Fortunately, the group didn't have to wait long for Alice to arrive. She all but sprinted into the house through the back door. The three werewolves who were still positioned around the kitchen door parted to let her through as though she was carrying a contagious disease. Once inside the living room, Alice took Harry's school bag from its place on the floor next to the couch and emptied it. She picked a notebook and a pencil out of the mess and proceeded to draw a perfect map of Forks and the surrounding area.

"Victoria is attacking tonight," she said as she drew.

The words caused a sharp pain in Harry's chest. Edward gave one of Harry's hands a reassuring squeeze while Leah did the same for the other.

"She is going to do a two-pronged assault. By my count, she has twenty vampires in addition to herself. Ten are going to hit the Reservation. Victoria is going with the remaining ten to hit our house," she lectured while motioning to various points on the map. "Everything got fuzzy at that point because of the battle; too many decisions that haven't been made yet come into play. What I can tell you is that she intends for both groups to meet up here," she finished while pointing to a dot near the center of the town's residential area.

"What's that?" Seth asked.

"Here," Jacob answered. "Right here. This house."

Harry closed his eyes and hung his head at Jacob's revelation. He knew that Victoria was coming for him, but he had hoped that she would go for him and leave the innocent people of Forks alone. Instead, she was going for the hurt, not just the kill. She wanted to cut through as many innocent people as possible on her way towards her prey. She wanted to really ratchet up the collateral damage to make Harry suffer before he died.

Alice's lecture quickly gave way to an argument about the best way to defeat Victoria. Esme, Rosalie, Alice, and Emmett wanted the two groups to work together and fight side-by-side. Sam, Jacob, and Seth argued back that the entire pack should stay near the Reservation to protect their lands and that the vampire coven, therefore, should fight off the other wing of Victoria's assault. Edward and argued that he should just take Harry and run. Suprisingly, his plan was supported by Jasper, Carlisle, and Leah.

The young wizard, however, had a totally different plan in mind. He picked up one the pencils that Alice had spilled out on the floor and used it to draw a little dot on the map. He put the dot out in the middle of the woods. It was the spot that he knew Edward's favorite meadow was.

"I'm going to sit right there."

Everyone except Jasper made sounds of disbelief. The tactician of the group, Harry was certain, knew what Harry planned. In the next second, he confirmed it. "You're going to be bait. You're going to put yourself out in the woods so that Victoria's forces converge on you out there. Your intent is that her forces won't have to go anywhere near the human population. Rather than going through them to get to you, the vampires must go through you to get to them. In other words, neither the Reservation nor Forks will be put in direct danger. The only way her vampires get to either one is to first win the battle."

"Exactly," Harry responded. "I'm not going to sit in the middle of town and let her ratchet up the collateral damage. If you engage her where she wants you to, then there's an unacceptable risk of one or two of the vampires getting past you." The wizard paused to cough for a second. "The newborns don't have the self-control to resist any human target. You fight them close to Forks or La Push and they get past you, people die. You fight them out in the woods, I'm the only human target."

"You're putting yourself in an extreme amount of danger," Esme said disapprovingly.

"I know."

"You could die," Edward said sounding utterly heartbroken at the notion.

Harry gave his vampire a weak smile. "Do you really think there is anything in this world that can stop that now?"

Silence was the only answer Edward gave.

No one liked it, but it made sense. It was soon decided that the two groups would work together to fight Victoria. To make sure the battle happened away from the 'civilians,' Harry would go to the middle of the woods and act as bait.

Win or lose, it was all going to be decided in the next sixteen hours.


	21. Chapter 21

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 21: Fight to the Finish**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Twenty – Fight to the Finish**

Harry groaned a bit when he woke up. Pushing himself upright on his bed, he looked around his room. Were it not for the moonlight shining through the windows, the wizard would have been completely blind in the dark space. He was alone at the moment, but the vampires and shapeshifters were still probably in the house. The teen fumbled in the dark for a moment until he found where his glasses were sitting on his nightstand. He put the spectacles on and then looked to the digital alarm clock. He could make out the seven at the start of the time, but his vision was too blurry to make out the other two digits.

Sighing deeply, Harry moved his legs over the side of the bed and made to stand up. He wobbled a bit and had to reach out and latch on to the headboard to keep himself from toppling over. He moved to the bathroom, turned on the light, and examined himself.

There were days when Harry Potter didn't recognize himself anymore. He had always been a bit small for his age, but he had never been as underweight as he was now. The muscle that years of quidditch had built upon his frame was gone. His skin, which used to be well-tanned from all of the time he spent outdoors, was very pale and clammy. The dark bags under his eyes reminded him of the purple bruises that formed under the eyes of his vampire companions when they needed to feed. All of these changes, combined with the loss of his hair, made Harry Potter question if any of his old friends in Britain would know him if he were to run into them on the street.

After cleaning himself up a bit, he got dressed. His outfit matched his mood: all black, from the dark tresses of his wig to his black boots. The boy then slowly moved back into the bedroom and sat on the floor next to the bed.

He reached under the bed and pulled out a long, locked trunk. He then twisted around and reached under the nightstand. After feeling around under the piece of furniture for a moment, he managed to find the small metal key he had taped there. Once he had retrieved the key, he unlocked the trunk.

Inside the trunk were the few remnants Harry Potter had of his four years at Hogwarts. Wrapped inside his father's silvery invisibility cloak were the family album Hagrid had made for him, the Marauder's Map, his uncle's passport, and several sealed vials containing doses of polyjuice potion. There were two additional items in the truck that weren't wrapped inside the cloak: Harry's holly and phoenix feather wand and his Firebolt brand broomstick. Harry felt a light thrill run up his spine as he touched those last two precious items for the first time in well over a year. After he pulled those two items out the truck, he placed them off to the side.

He was about to close the trunk when the family album caught his eye. He pulled it out and took a few minutes to flip through all of the happy-looking pictures of his parents. A couple of times, he imagined playing out the scenes with Edward. With a sad smile, Harry put the album back into the trunk before locking the box and sliding back under his bed.

Placing his hand on the side of the mattress, Harry pulled himself back up onto his feet. He collected his wand and boomstick and then went downstairs to join the others.

Only Sam Uley had left in the hours since Harry had been ushered upstairs by Esme to rest. The large group of 'supernatural beings' stood around the map that Alice had drawn earlier that day discussing strategies for dealing with the impending threat. Everyone looked up when Harry entered the room.

"What's with those?" Seth asked.

"My wand and broomstick. Just in case," the wizard began to explain. "I don't want to risk getting the attention of wizards by using magic, but if all else fails . . ." he trailed off. "Everything ready?"

"Yes," Jasper said. "The two youngest werewolves are going to remain at the Reservation to act as a last line of defense there. Jacob, Leah, Embry, Carlisle, Esme, Alice, and myself will head off Victoria's western forces. Sam, Paul, Jared, Quil, Emmett, and Rosalie will head off Victoria's eastern forces. Edward and Seth will escort you to clearing."

"And then they will be going to join the rest of you, right?" the green-eyed boy questioned.

"No," Edward answered firmly. "We're staying with you."

"We can't afford to have anyone sitting on the sidelines babysitting me," Harry argued back. "After I'm in the clearing, you should go and join the others."

"No," Seth and Edward all but shouted in unison. Seth's disagreement surprised Harry a bit; he had expected the younger boy to want to join in the fray.

"It does make sense," Jasper said quietly to Carlisle. "Edward is an experienced combatant. Perhaps he should join Emmett's group. Seth can remain with Harry."

"No," Edward said again. "You can't expect me to leave Harry so unprotected."

"Hey! It's not like I can't protect Harry just as well as you can," Seth argued back hotly.

Seth and Edward glared at each other for a few seconds before Harry decided to intervene in the conflict. "Edward," he began as he placed a hand on the vampire's arm, "you know it's the right choice. The only way any of them are going to get to me is if they fight their way past our people. If they do that, one of the werewolves will notice. If one of the werewolves knows, they'll all know. As long as there is at least one werewolf on your team, you'll know as well. None of the Victoria's vampires will be able to get anywhere near me without you knowing about it."

Edward looked mutinously at Harry before nodding his head in agreement. "At the first sign of trouble . . ."

"I know."

The group started to break up after that point was agreed upon. No one bothered to wish one another good luck or say good bye. There was no need for it; everyone knew how everyone else felt.

Harry rode on Seth's back through the woods to the clearing. He would occasionally catch sight of Edward running nearby. Although it was hard to make anything out while moving at such high speeds, the moonlight would occasionally reflect off of Edward's skin in a dazzling display that caught Harry's attention.

It took only a few minutes to reach the meadow. Once they arrived, the wizard rolled off of Seth's back and examined the clearing. It was exactly as Harry remembered it: a near perfect circle surrounded on all sides by ancient-looking trees of various species. The full moon was shining brightly in the clear sky. The moon provided enough illumination that Harry was able to see everything in the clearing as well as he could on a typical day on the Olympic Peninsula.

As Harry stood at the edge of the meadow, Edward walked forward carrying a large chunk of tree. In a flurry of movement, Edward had stripped the branches from the tree to create a large log for Harry to sit upon. He placed the log in the very center of the clearing before disappearing back into the woods. He returned a short moment later with Harry's wand and broomstick, both of which he had carried with him from Harry's home.

"Thank you, Edward," the dark-haired boy said as he joined the vampire at the log.

"You're welcome," the vampire replied. "Harry . . . I-"

Harry stopped Edward from speaking by placing a finger to the immortal's lips. "Tell me after."

Edward nodded his head once before pivoting in place and running from the meadow to join his allies. As he watched Edward leave, Harry felt certain that it was the last time he'd ever see his beloved immortal. That thought broke his heart.

Once the vampire was out of sight, Harry sat down heavily on the log. He had forced himself to ignore the pain in his joints and the way the world seemed to spinning in circles about his head while he was with Edward, but he couldn't maintain the façade any longer. Seth joined him a moment later and gave a sympathetic wimper; Seth's proximity was very comforting, both because it was nice to have a friend nearby and because the heat that radiated from the shapeshifter kept Harry warm.

Although Seth looked to be resting, Harry could tell that he was highly alert, looking for any sign of danger.

For several hours, Harry had nothing to do but wait. He watched Seth very carefully for any sign that the battle may have begun. About three hours after Edward left the duo, the wolf became very rigid and then raised his hackles.

"Is it the fight?" Harry asked, the last word nearly unintelligible because of the start of a coughing fit.

Seth turned to look at the wizard and nodded his head up and down.

The boy's thoughts, which had already been plagued with horrible 'what if' scenarios, began to take on a darker tone. Harry took a deep breath and did his best to focus on his surroundings. He had to be prepared if the vampires managed to get past either of the two lines of defenders.

It was about twenty agonizing minutes later that Seth rose from his spot. The sudden motion, after such a prolonged period of imitating a statue, caused Harry to jump slightly. The shapeshifter gave Harry a quick glance and then rushed off towards the tree line to Harry's left. Harry repositioned himself on the log to get a better view of Seth's destination.

Seth reached the edge of the clearing at the same time that two pale individuals came into view in the distance. Harry knew that they were both vampires and that knowledge caused his heart to begin racing.

The first of the two vampires to come into view was a short male who appeared to have been turned in his later thirties or early forties. The vampire had short, receding black hair atop his egg-shaped head. The second vampire couldn't have been any older than Harry when had been changed. He was blond and built very much like Jasper: tall and lean. The younger-looking vampire's eyes were bright red, indicated that he had fed very recently. It terrified Harry to think that the vampire might had fed since the start of the battle, either on a human that was unlucky enough to have strayed into the area of conflict or on one of the members of the pack.

Both of the vampires were heading directly towards Harry when they caught sight of Seth moving into their path. Upon seeing the shapeshifter, the vampires slowed down and began to drift apart. Harry wondered for a moment if they intended to force Seth to pick one of them to fight while the other went for their intended prey. That thought vanished when it became apparent that they were attempting to maneuver so that they could attack the wolf from both sides.

Seth's head was darting back and forth between the two vampires as they tried to circle him. Tired of waiting for the vampires to attack, Seth rushed at the balding vampire just long enough for the vampire to back away several steps. Once the first began to retreat backwards, Seth turned abruptly around and leapt at the blond vampire.

The leap, however, wasn't a feint like the move towards the first vampire. Seth would have landed directly on top of the blond vampire had the immortal not taken a step backwards at the last possible moment. The evasion didn't faze Seth in the least; he continued forward and attempted to claw and bite at his opponent.

The bald vampire rushed at Seth from behind. The next moment, all three of the combatants were engaged in a fight that was so fast that Harry had an extremely difficult time following it. The vampires kept trying to double team Seth, but the shorter of the two seemed very afraid of getting caught in the shapeshifter's jaws and so would frequently make minor retreats. It was during those fleeting moments that Seth seemed to gain the upper hand against the other vampire.

Harry held on to the wand in his hand so tightly that his fingers were going numb. He was prepared to take a shot when and if the opportunity to cast a spell without hitting Seth presented itself. Consequences of his use of magic be damned.

The teen's attention was taken away from the battle when he caught sight of something bright moving through the trees towards the fight. Harry felt as though someone had punched him in the gut when that 'something' moved close enough for him to make out its bright orange hair.

It was Victoria.

Tall and seductive, the vampire that had haunted Harry's dreams for months had arrived to finally exact her revenge for the death of her mate. Victoria walked in a slow and deliberate manner through the trees towards the fight. The mortal was momentarily confused as to why she didn't bypass the fight and head straight for him; however, he realized her intent quickly enough.

Victoria planned on joining the fight. She wanted Harry to see her kill at least one of his friends with his own eyes.

Harry raised his wand and tried to take aim at the vampire. She stopped momentarily and tilted her head to the side as through she was trying to figure out what he was doing. The teen had every intention of blasting the vampire bitch with the foulest curse he could muster, but he just couldn't aim at her properly. At the distance she was standing away from him, Harry would have been hard pressed to successfully hit her even if his head wasn't spinning and his arm wasn't shaking.

Victoria started to move towards Seth like a lioness once more. Harry was desperate to find some way to help Seth, to give him an advantage in his fight. Suddenly, a crystal clear plan formed in Harry's mind. He knew what he'd have to do to save Seth.

He searched the ground for something sharp. A few rocks were visible jutting out from the tall grass, but there was nothing that looked sharp enough. Even the places on the log where Edward had torn the branches from didn't look like they'd work; the vampire's marble hands had broken the branches away as neatly as if he had cut them off with a saw. Harry realized that he'd have to improvise.

With his right hand, the teen put his holly wand under his right foot, stepped on the end, and snapped the want into two pieces. The action turned the smooth wand into two pointy pieces of wood. Small bits of dark red feather stuck out where the two halves had once met. Harry took a deep breath as shoved the sharp end of the piece he held into his left hand.

The pain was intense as the broken piece of wood pierced Harry's flesh. As soon as the wood shard was in his hand, Harry ripped it back out and let it fall to the ground. Harry knew that he didn't have time to see if the stab wound would attract any of the vampires; he had to go on faith that the sudden smell of human blood would cause at least one of the vampires to forget the fight with Seth and move towards the food source. In one quick motion he grabbed hold of the broomstick that was leaning against the log and took off at top speed into the woods.

Harry had a hard time navigating the forest at the speed he was traveling. He was zooming over fallen trees and under branches. He couldn't spare even a single glance backwards to see if the vampires were pursuing him because such a move would have undoubtedly caused him to crash. Harry's best seeker reflexes made up for his dizziness and difficulties in seeing such that he didn't crash. He didn't avoid all injuries, however. A collision with a cedar branch gave him a large gash on his cheek and caused him to lose his glasses while a glancing blow by another branch managed, he was certain, to dislocate his right shoulder.

The only plan Harry was able to formulate was 'draw them away from Seth.' The wizard was doing his damnedest to navigate through the woods to where he believed the battle was raging; he couldn't risk leading the vampire or vampires that were pursuing him back towards town.

The teenage wizard was forced to make a sharp right when he emerged from a line of trees in front of a wall of rock. No sooner had he made the quick course correction than he was yanked hard off of his broom. The boy hit the ground hard on his already injured shoulder and rolled for several feet. By the time he came to a stop, he was covered from head to toe with cuts and scrapes. Using his bleeding left hand, Harry managed to push himself upright to look at his attacker.

Victoria was standing only a few feet away from where he was laying. She was giggling in a high-pitched and childish way that Harry wouldn't have expected from the vile creature. She held his wig in one hand and his broomstick in another.

"Such a neat little toy," the vampire said in fascination of the broomstick. She discarded his wig like an afterthought and then, in one quick motion, snapped the broom in two. "Poor little human," she said with mocking sympathy. "So sick. So tired. Don't worry little boy, you won't have to suffer much longer."

Staggering, Harry managed to get back up on his feet. If he was about to die at Victoria's hands, he had every intention of going out like a man.

"Poor little bitch," Harry mimicked. "So ugly. So alone. What's the matter? Couldn't find another vampire desperate enough to take you as a mate?"

Victoria closed the space between herself in Harry with lightning speed. With a resounding crack, she hit the boy across the face. The impact was hard enough that it sent flying back against the rock wall.

With a pained gasp and then a groan, Harry slid down the rock face. The metallic taste of blood filled his mouth. Still defiant, he pushed his back up against the rock wall and started to push himself up.

"That's right," Victoria encouraged. "Put up a fight. I want this to be nice and slow. I want you to suffer."

"G-Go to hell, you hag," Harry managed between gasps before spitting a mouthful of blood in her direction.

Victoria put one of her deceptively delicate-looking hands around Harry's neck and began to squeeze. Her grip was like a vice: strong and precise. She allowed Harry just enough air that he felt like he was suffocating, but he was still able to gasp for mouthfuls of air every second or so.

Harry tried to yank the vampire's fingers from his throat, but she was just too strong.

"Anything else you wish to say before you die?" Victoria said. She put her ear next to Harry's mouth. She knew that her grip was tight enough that Harry couldn't speak; asking him the question was just part of her game. "What? No more insults? Nothing? Well, if you're not going to speak, then you have no need for a jaw, now do you?"

The red-haired vampire brought her free hand up to Harry's jaw. His eyes widened as he realized what she intended to do and he clamped his jaw shut. With her incredible strength, Victoria had no difficulty forcing his jaw back open. She put one of her marble-like fingers inside his mouth and then used her thumb to complete her hold on his jaw.

Harry braced himself for what he knew was going to be the most awful pain he would ever experience. It didn't come.

A hand shot shout of nowhere and grabbed hold of Victoria's wrist. A moment later, Victoria's arm had been shattered into a million sparkling pieces. Victoria jerked backwards with an angry howl.

Harry collapsed back to the ground, Victoria's hand still holding on to his jaw. In the next instant, the hand was gone and Jasper Cullen was supporting Harry's weight.

"I have you," the Civil War era vampire said softly.

It took a bit for Harry's mind to catch up with what was going on. Apparently, Edward, Jasper, and Emmett Cullen had all arrived right before Victoria could rip Harry's jaw from his face. Edward had grabbed hold of the female vampire's arm and prevented her from completing her intended task. His brothers acted in the next moment and broke Victoria's arm into many pieces. Jasper then removed Victoria's hand from Harry's jaw while Edward and Emmett went on the offensive.

Harry's hold on consciousness was fading pretty fast, but he managed to keep his eyes open long enough to see Edward turn towards him once Victoria was reduced to a pile of rubble.

Victoria was defeated and Edward was unharmed. That knowledge allowed Harry to smile contentedly as the world faded away around him.


	22. Chapter 22

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 22: A New Day**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Twenty-One – A New Day**

Harry Potter felt like great lead weights were attached to each of his limbs. He felt like he was being pulled downward into some great and terrible pool. Ever so slowly, however, the weights started to seem less oppressive and he felt himself rising to the surface.

When he first opened his eyes, he was blinded by light. He immediately closed them and focused on trying to figure out what was happening to him.

He wasn't in the cold forest anymore. He felt warm and comfortable; he was obviously in a bed. And he could hear something. A voice, perhaps? The boy focused on the sound as hard as he could.

"'Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, . . .'" the voice said softly. Harry knew the words: Sonnet 18. Harry recognized the voice as well; he cherished that voice.

"E-Edward . . ." Harry managed to say weakly, his eyes still shut.

The reading stopped immediately and the teen could feel a cool hand press against his cheek.

"Harry?" The voice was hopeful. "Come on, Harry, open your eyes. Please."

It took everything he had in him, but Harry complied; he opened his eyes once again. The room was still very bright, so he could only squint, but he was still able to make out Edward's handsome face.

"Hey, you."

"Hey right back," Edward said softly.

"You were reading my favorite one," Harry said referring to the sonnet.

"Good timing is all. You slept through 'Romeo and Juliet' and about a dozen others."

The wizard smiled at Edward. He felt extremely tired, but the longer he was awake, the more lucid he became. He was able to take stock of himself after another couple of moments.

He could feel various bandages covering the cuts and scratches on his body. The wound on his left hand where he stabbed himself with one of the shards of his broken wand was wrapped in a very large and bulky bandage. His right shoulder wasn't dislocated anymore, but it ached dully. His could also feel an IV attached to his right arm.

"How do you feel?" the vampire asked.

"Like Emmett ran me over with his jeep." Mentioning the brawny vampire caused Harry's memories of the fight to come rushing back to him. He suddenly felt panicked. "Emmett?" he asked in alarm. "What about Emmett? And Seth? What-"

Edward cut Harry off before he could ask any more questions. "They're all okay. We didn't lose anybody."

Harry breathed a great sigh of relief at that bit of news. "Was anyone hurt?"

"Nothing permanent. We're very durable creatures. The wolves have had time to lick their wounds, so they're doing quite well."

"How long was I out?" Harry asked, his mind finally clear and his eyes adjusted to the light.

"Only two days. A very long two days," the bronze-haired immortal said. "Are you ready for Carlisle to come in and examine you?"

"Sure, I guess."

Edward reached behind Harry and pushed the call button. A nurse arrived a moment later and, after seeing that 'Jay Harris' was awake, left to alert Doctor Cullen about the change in his patient. Harry spent the short time it took for the doctor to arrive enjoying Edward's quiet presence.

Carlisle entered the room with an unusually large grin on his face. As soon as he shut the door, he addressed the teen. "Ah, Harry. It's good to see you awake."

"Are you certain?" Edward asked urgently.

Both the question and the tone in which the vampire asked it confused Harry. He entertained the thought that he'd blacked out for part of the conversation, but soon realized that Edward was asking about something Carlisle was thinking about. "Certain of what?"

Carlisle was still smiling when he gave Harry the news. "Your cancer is in remission."

"W-What?" Harry gasped. He thought that perhaps his ears were playing tricks on him. Perhaps he was hearing things that he wanted to hear rather than things that were actually being said.

"I just verified the results a short while ago. I believe that that was the news that Doctor Sheldon was calling to tell you before he was murdered."

Harry thought back the phone call. The usually dour oncologist _had_ seemed unusually cheerful.

"But-But I felt so awful. I was so sick the last few days before the fight."

"That was a combination of factors. The side effects of the chemotherapy caused the brunt of your symptoms. The treatment also suppressed your immune system such that you developed a number of minor infections and a mild case of pneumonia, hence the fluid I heard in your lungs," Carlisle explained. "And the other obstruction of your throat turned out to be a cyst."

The room was totally silent as the words sunk in. After a moment, Harry's shoulders started to shake so badly that both Edward and Carlisle thought the boy was crying. Their fears were dispelled when Harry opened his mouth and started to laugh almost hysterically. The amount of relief and happiness in the human's voice caused the vampires' hearts to soar.

"I can't believe it," Harry said as his voice calmed. "It's over. It's all finally over. No more Victoria. No more chemo. It's all just over and done with."

"Well," Carlisle interjected reluctantly, "Victoria is gone, but you've got a great deal of recovering to do. And you're going to need to start chemotherapy again in a couple of weeks."

"What?" both Harry and Edward asked in unison.

"You'll need to get over your infections and the pneumonia first. After that, we'll need to perform surgery to remove the cyst. And then you're going to need to go undergo a few more weeks of chemotherapy."

"Why more chemo if the cancer is in remission?" Harry demanded.

"The cancer is in remission, but it isn't gone completely. The second phase of your treatment involves using chemotherapy to destroy all of the remaining cancer cells. Using chemotherapy in this way has a decent chance of ensuring that your cancer never returns."

Harry thought about it a bit before asking, "How good of a chance?"

"Over 20%."

The teen sighed before looking back at Edward. "I guess I can handle a couple more weeks."

"I'm _sure_ that you can handle it, Harry," Edward said confidently.

"As am I," Carlisle added. "You won't have to begin the treatments again until after we've dealt with your other maladies. And you'll be on the less aggressive treatment regimen."

"Well . . . at least there's that," Harry said in a resigned voice.

Carlisle then went about doing a standard check-up of Harry. As he went about his work, Edward began to fill the human in on everything he'd missed.

"We took care of most of Victoria's army. Working with the wolves and our greater experience in combat gave us the edge. Only a handful escaped, and they didn't last long. The Volturi took care of them," he began.

"The Volturi? I thought that they were just ignoring the situation," Harry said as Doctor Cullen began to scribble notes on Harry's chart.

"That is what we assumed when they allowed the problem to continue for so long. Now we believe that they hoped that Victoria would succeed in thinning the herd, as it were. The Volturi have never been comfortable with our coven's size or its feeding preferences, so they probably hoped that Victoria would reduce our numbers. They didn't show up until the bulk of the fighting was over. Alice and Jasper were the only two that actually saw them."

"Where was everyone else?"

"Carlisle, Esme, and I were transporting you to the hospital. Emmett and Rosalie were destroying the remains of Victoria's defeated minions. And the wolves . . ." he trailed off for a moment. "I'm still not very clear on what happened with them."

Harry sent Edward a questioning look. The vampire seemed to struggle with how to explain whatever the problem with the pack of shapeshifters was.

"There has been some sort of power struggle within the ranks of the pack. I do not know the details, but there is no longer one pack. Jacob Black has created a separate one consisting of himself, Leah Clearwater, Seth Clearwater, and Quil Ateara."

Harry was surprised that Embry Call wasn't part of the new pack; he had, after all, generally acted as Jacob's wingman. That minor detail, however, didn't change how proud Harry felt of his friend. "Jacob's an alpha. Way to go," he said quietly.

"I thought that you'd approve. He and the members of his new pack have been by to see you several times. Leah has been most distressed by the amount of time you spent unconscious."

"What of the family?"

"Life continues as always. I believe that I hear Alice and Jasper just down the hall. They will be here shortly."

The words had no sooner left Edward's mouth than the door burst open and Alice cried out, "Harry!"

As the female vampire leaned over the boy and hugged him, he quietly corrected her. "It's 'Jay,' remember?"

"Sorry," she said absently before checking him over. "You're starting to get some color back in your cheeks."

"That could be because I'm pumped full or drugs at the moment. Or it could be because my cancer is in remission," Harry said as casually as he could.

Alice immediately covered her mouth as she released a squeal of joy. "Oh, that's wonderful!" She leaned back over to hug the boy a second time.

"Indeed it is," Jasper said from his position by the door.

"I was wondering, Alice," Harry began when she straightened herself back upright, "do you have that thing I gave you?"

The female vampire frowned for a moment before opening her purse and producing a white envelope with Edward's name written on the front. She handed it Harry.

"Do you think you could all give us a couple of minutes," Harry asked Jasper, Alice, and Carlisle. The group silently nodded and left.

"What's that?" Edward asked suspiciously.

"This is the letter I wrote to you in case I died. It has everything I wanted to make sure you'd never forget. Everything I feel for you," Harry answered as he looked up at Edward. He managed to push himself so that he saw sitting somewhat upright with his pillow supporting his back.

Harry turned the envelope over in his hands for a moment before tearing it in half. He then tore the two pieces in half again. And then a third time.

"What are you doing?" Edward asked.

"I don't need to give you a letter, Edward. I plan on telling you how I feel. Everyday from now on."

Edward smiled his crooked smile at Harry. "And how do you feel?"

"I am madly and deeply in love with you, Edward Anthony Masen Cullen," Harry said using the vampire's full name.

"And I am madly and deeply in love with you, Harry James Potter."

The two just smiled at each other for long moment before Harry finally got impatient. "I think this is the part where you're supposed to kiss me."

"Gladly."

Edward learned down and placed a long, lingering kiss on Harry's lips. It was a delicate kiss, but still filled with passion and love. Even after almost a full year without practice, Edward and Harry were still very good at this part.

**A/N:** This completes the first story arc of the story. Next chapter is a bit of filler to bridge the gap to the next story arc.


	23. Chapter 23

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 23: Changing Seasons**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Twenty-Two – Changing Seasons**

The next few months were blissful, in Harry Potter's opinion. As awful as things had been before Christmas, that was how wonderful they became after.

Harry overcame his pneumonia and various other infections in relatively short order and was released from Forks General the day after Christmas. After being discharged, Harry was able to celebrate the holiday with his friends and family. He celebrated Christmas on the 27th at his home with Jacob, Leah, Seth, and Quil and then again the next day with the Cullens at their home. Although Jacob's pack and the Cullen coven were on much better terms and had gained a great deal of respect for each other, spending the holiday together would have been pushing things a bit far.

Harry felt a bit guilty at the presents he received because he hadn't had the time or energy to buy presents in return. Everyone made sure to tell that they had gotten the best possible present: Harry, alive and on the mend.

The two Christmas celebrations were as different from one another as the people Harry enjoyed them with. The werewolf celebration was loud and boisterous and involved the consumption of massive amounts of junk food. The vampire Christmas was like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting, with the Cullen home immaculately decorated.

Alice and Esme took an inordinate amount of joy in preparing their home for the celebration. Esme's joy came from the fact that she once again had the opportunity to actually use her kitchen. And Alice, ecstatic at Harry and Edward's overdue reconciliation, made a game out of seeing how many obscure places in the household she could hang mistletoe. Edward and Harry had shared mistletoe-required kisses in no fewer than eighteen different locations in the house, including kisses in the pantry, garage, and Rosalie's massive bathroom. The blonde vampire was very upset to find Harry and Edward pawing at one another in her bathtub.

Too soon, however, the new year came and Harry had to return to the hospital to have the cyst removed from the inside of his throat. Fortunately, he only had to stay in the hospital for two days and he had visitors during the entire time he was there. One of the advantages of dating the son of Forks' favorite doctor was that visiting hour restrictions became more like suggestions and less like actual rules.

Harry also had no shortage of entertainment during his brief hospital stay. Seth and Edward engaged one another in a friendly ice cream competition. It began innocently enough; both Edward and Seth brought Harry ice cream to eat when he woke up after his surgery. The werewolf brought chocolate and the vampire brought strawberry. When asked which one he'd prefer, Harry politely accepted some of both so as to not hurt either's feelings. After Harry fell asleep a short while later, Seth and Edward both went out and bought several more pints of ice cream of varying flavors to present Harry with when he woke up next. The wizard was polite and had at least a little of everything he was given. Edward and Seth kept trying to out do one another, each going to more ridiculous extremes to bring Harry new flavors. Leah even told Harry that Seth had gone to Port Angeles as a werewolf, changed back into a human, bought ice cream, and then ran back to Forks as a wolf with the sack of ice cream hanging from his mouth. Harry politely and sincerely thanked both boys for the ice cream, but never revealed his favorite flavor to them.

Honestly, he loved Neapolitan ice cream the most, but he was just having too much fun watching Edward and Seth competing with one another over such a trivial thing to bother telling them the truth. Besides, Jacob, Quil, and Leah were enjoying all of the excess ice cream.

During both of Harry's hospital stays, Jacob Black proved to be a real life saver. Chief Swan was starting to become more and more vocal about his disapproval of the lack of involvement in 'Jay's' life by his guardian. To head off any attempt by the man to contact child services, Jacob stole two of Harry's vials of polyjuice potion and transformed into 'Uncle Seymour' to pacify the Chief.

The first time Jacob showed up looking exactly like Vernon Dursley, Harry thought he was going to be sick. Once the uncle wagged his eyebrows up and down suggestively when he mentioned how Edward had spent the previous night in Harry's hospital room, the teen knew that Jacob had raided the trunk under his bed. 'Uncle Seymour's' two appearances had been enough to satisfy Charlie Swan, for the time being at least.

Harry was able to rejoin his classmates on the third day of the new semester. Edward had charmed his way into each and every one of Harry's spring semester classes except for the period that the wizard worked as an office aide. The semester got off to a rocky start because Harry had to make up the work from the three weeks of classes he had missed at the end of the previous semester, but things normalized by mid-February, despite the fact that Harry's attempts at catch up were hampered on more than one occasion by his latest round of chemotherapy.

As Doctor Cullen had explained, Harry had to begin a new round of chemotherapy in mid-January and keep the routine up until the end of March. The purpose of the new regimen was to destroy any cancer cells that remained undetected in Harry's system; a process referred to as 'consolidation' by Doctor Cullen. Harry endured the therapy just as he had the previous year. Fortunately, the consolidation therapy involved a much less aggressive mixture of chemicals and a less hectic schedule than Harry was using back in December, so the toll it took on his body wasn't nearly as devastating.

It was more than Harry's health that was looking up, however. His life just seemed to be on an upswing.

Despite Jacob Black's earlier fears about Harry ditching the werewolves for the Cullens, the wizard maintained his brotherly relationship with the members of Jacob's pack. There was little change in Harry's already strong relationships with Leah, Jacob, and Seth. Harry's relationship with Quil, however, became significantly stronger.

Before Jacob's pack split away from Sam Uley's pack, Harry and Quil had barely interacted at all. They occasionally joked around with one another, but they never sought out one another's companionship. Quil always stuck with Embry and Paul while Harry stuck with Leah, Seth, and Jacob. Now that the pack he was running with was considerably smaller, Quil had taken the time to have a few real conversations with the wizard. Quil particularly enjoyed cracking jokes about how Harry kissing Edward must have been like someone kissing a live fish: cold and slimy.

Harry tried several times to figure out what had been the source of the falling out between Jacob's pack and Sam's, but no one was too keen on talking about. The British boy did eventually find out from Billy Black that Sam held him directly responsible for the rift. That tidbit led Harry to believe that the conflict stemmed from the disagreement Seth had told him about not long before the battle with Victoria: the argument about Harry's right to decide for himself whether or not to become a vampire.

Harry and Alice's friendship became as strong as it was before the Cullens' almost year-long absence from Forks. Whether they were out having fun in Port Angeles or sitting in the park talking about nonsense, the teen greatly enjoyed the time he spent with the seer.

The friendship that Harry had formed with Emmett Cullen during the course of his illness grew stronger as well. Before the Cullen family's departure, Emmett and Harry had shared a friendly but not particularly close relationship. The pair now was known to spend almost every Saturday afternoon watching sports together. Jasper would join them most times; the empath was slowly becoming very comfortable around the human.

Esme and Carlisle went to great lengths to try and make Harry feel welcome in their home. The pair had even invited him to move in with the family. While Harry greatly appreciated the offer, he declined each and every time they extended it. The invitations did become increasingly difficult to turn down, especially when Rosalie of all people got in on the act. Harry loved the Cullens, but liked having his own little home. Besides, it was far easier for him to spend time with the werewolf pack when he had the ability to shower in his own bathroom.

The most important change in Harry's life was that Edward Cullen was once again his near-constant companion. The only times when the pair ever separated for any considerable period of time were when Edward went hunting and when Harry was spending time with his werewolf friends.

By mid-May, everything in Harry Potter's life seemed to be perfect except for one minor detail: Edward was composing.

It wasn't that Harry didn't like it when his vampire boyfriend composed music. In fact, the wizard was usually very flattered when Edward composed music because he almost always wrote it for Harry. But there were other things Harry wanted to be doing at the moment; he had much better plans for Edward's talented hands.

The green-eyed boy stood at the threshold of Edward's room watching as the vampire played the parts of the song he had already perfected. After listening to the soft music for several minutes, Harry decided to make his move.

"I can hear you," Edward said in a sing-song voice as Harry approached him from behind.

"I know," Harry said. He liked it when he got to play the part of predator.

"You also know that I hate it when you hear my work before it's finished," Edward said matter-of-factly.

"But there's something I want to show you," Harry replied.

"Oh?"

Harry took the wig of dark hair off of his head and tossed it to the floor. His attention caught by the soft sound of the impact, Edward turned his head slightly to see where the wig landed. When he saw that it was Harry's wig, the vampire stopped playing abruptly and turned to look at his boyfriend. Harry was still so very careful not to be seen without a wig or other headpiece on, even if the only person who would see him was Edward.

The vampire turned completely around on his piano bench to look at Harry. The boy had a large smile on his face and was rubbing the top of his head. Edward could make out a bit of light brown hair growing on top of the wizard's head.

"It looks a bit lighter than before," Harry said with a large smile on his face. "I've read that when it comes back after chemo, it is often a different shade. Sometimes even a different texture."

"That's wonderful," Edward said sincerely. He knew how self-conscious Harry had been about the loss of his hair and was very pleased that the last remnant of Harry's illness was fading away.

"Yes, it is wonderful," the human said as he approached Edward.

Edward was about to ask Harry what he was doing, but he couldn't find the willpower to say anything as Harry pushed back on his chest and then straddled his hips. Had Edward been human, the pair would have likely tumbled to the floor as Harry forced him to lean back slightly. Instead, they were nicely balanced with Harry straddling the vampire's hips and his arms encircling Edward's neck.

The wizard placed a gentle kiss on Edward's lips. It wasn't anything fancy or forceful, just a momentary connection. Harry moved his head so that his mouth was directly next to his boyfriend's left ear.

"Do you really want to spend the evening playing with the piano keys, Edward? I can think of so many more . . . _interactive_ things we could be doing."

Edward tipped his head down and began to suckle on Harry's neck ever so lightly. "Oh yeah?" he asked in a brief moment when he was able to tear himself away from his love.

"Yeah," Harry replied as he ran his fingers through Edward's copper hair.

In a quick motion Edward stood from the piano bench and carried Harry over to the large black leather couch that the pair frequently used for their romantic interactions. Such abrupt motions used to startle Harry, but he was used to them by now. The movement turned the tables on Harry as Edward was now the one in control. The vampire pushed Harry down on the couch, straddled his hips, and proceeded to attack the human's lips with great enthusiasm.

For a moment, Harry thought that this was going to be the night that the pair crossed the invisible boundary line that limited how far Edward was willing to take their physical relationship. The thought was short-lived, however. Harry knew that Edward wouldn't have sex with him. At least, not while he was a human. There was too much of a risk that Harry could be seriously injured or worse.

What if Edward's fingernails accidentally drew blood? What if one of Edward's kisses accidentally became a bite? What if Edward became lost in the heat of the moment and didn't keep the tight hold on his superhuman strength? What if? What if? What if?

'What if?' questions often seemed to be the bane of Harry's existence.

Aside from Edward's fears of hurting Harry, there was another practical concern: the family. Harry had only recently become comfortable enough to go to the bathroom in the Cullen household. Whenever Harry was thinking clearly, the idea of having sex in a house full of people who would be able to hear every detail no matter how quiet you tried to be really creeped him out.

Too soon for Harry's tastes, Edward began to slow down his attack. The kisses lost their fury; they became soft and gentle instead of harsh and hungry. It was the vampire's way of signaling to Harry that his self-control demanded they stop for a while. Reluctantly, Harry complied.

Edward remained above Harry for quite some time. Another advantage of being a vampire was that his marble frame could hold an otherwise uncomfortable position almost indefinitely.

"What are you thinking about?" Edward asked quietly.

Harry ran a hand down Edward's cheek and chest and then back up. He felt a great sense of satisfaction in the way the vampire let out an involuntary sigh at the gesture; earning such an honest reaction from a man that was basically a living sculpture was quite the accomplishment. "I'm thinking about you and me. And the summer."

"The summer?"

"Bathing suit season," Harry said as he hooked a finger around the top button of Edward's shirt and made to look under.

The vampire laughed softly at Harry's action. "Since when have you been so desperate to get my clothes off?"

"Maybe I'm just hanging around Emmett too much. He is quite the pervert when your parents aren't around."

Edward leaned down and gave the wizard as quick peck on the tip of his nose. "Seriously, though. What were you thinking about? It kills me not to know."

Harry smiled back up at Edward. "I was just thinking about how perfectly everything is going."

"The best is yet to come, my love."

**A/N:** A little filler and a little fluff. Basically just covering the short timeskip between story arcs


	24. Chapter 24

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 24: Questions and Answers**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Twenty-Three – Questions and Answers**

There are few sights that Edward Cullen enjoys more than a sleeping Harry Potter. The wizard never actually rests his head on his pillow anymore. Instead, he sleeps on his side with the pillow clutched to his chest. As odd as it sounds, Edward envies that pillow.

Harry looks so peaceful when he sleeps that Edward hates to wake him up, but he needs to anyway. He has big plans for the day.

"Harry," the vampire says softly as he reaches and gently rubs the human's shoulder. "Time to wake up."

The dark-haired boy raised his head slightly, but didn't jump. With blurry eyes he looks at the vampire. "E-Edward?" he asks in confusion. "What time is it?"

"Almost ten in the morning," Edward replies.

"Almost ten?" Harry asks in the surprise, all signs of confusion and sleepiness instantly vanishing. "I meant to get up at eight."

"Why in the world would you want to be up at eight on a Saturday morning?"

Harry rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he answered. "I planned on proofreading my English final today. It's, like, twenty pages long and will take forever. By the time I finish that, I'll have to start getting ready for my math final." He fumbled for his glasses.

"I already proofed your English paper," Edward said with a crooked smile. "And I've made a set of flash cards for you to study with for math. You'll have all day tomorrow to study."

The teen put his glasses on his face and looked at Edward. He noticed, for the first time, that his boyfriend was balancing a breakfast tray with one hand. The eggs, bacon, potatoes, toast, and orange juice looked very appetizing. The tray was accented with a little clear vase with a single red rose sticking out of it.

"Um . . . I suddenly feel like I'm forgetting something very important," Harry said while as he sat upright and then leaned back against the headboard of his bed. "I know it isn't our anniversary."

Edward moved forward and placed the tray on the wizard's lap. "I can't think of anything you would be forgetting," he said nonchalantly.

"Uh huh . . . So you're bringing me breakfast in bed and proofreading my homework and stuff why exactly?"

"Can't a guy do something nice for his boyfriend every once in a while?" Edward asked.

Harry looked at the vampire skeptically in response.

"You've worked really hard all semester to make up for your less than stellar performance when you were ill. Although you have stubbornly refused most of the help I've offered-"

"You were going to do the work for me. That's called 'cheating,' Edward," Harry interrupted.

"-I figured I could at least give you the day off so that you don't have a meltdown before finals. It's a mental health day," Edward finished without skipping a beat.

The green-eyed boy scrutinized his boyfriend for several long moments while starting on his breakfast. "You're up to something," he accused.

"_Moi_?"

"Yes, _moi_. I mean, you. I can always tell when you're up to something. You get all-all," Harry said while jabbing a piece of toast in Edward's direction.

"All what?"

"All like this. You start using all of this playful banter," Harry said.

"Yes, well, be that as it may, I still have the whole day planned out."

Harry nibbled on the end of a piece of toast for a moment. "I really should start studying for the math final."

"You'll have all day tomorrow to do that. I promise."

"I don't know . . ." Harry said in an overly exaggerated tone of uncertainty.

Edward smirked, knowing that he'd convinced his mortal.

The day passed by in a blur. As soon as Harry had finished eating breakfast and was up and dressed, Edward took him to an amusement park a short distance from Seattle. It was the same park that Edward had taken Harry to the October before his family left Forks where they had had their picture taken in a booth. Harry was excited to be going in warmer weather.

The trip to the amusement park didn't take very long, despite the distance. Edward, as always, drove at speeds almost twice the posted limit. Harry joked that the roller coasters would seem slow in comparison.

The pair rode all of the adult rides at least once before spending some time playing the games. Harry had mixed feelings about the games. On the one hand, Edward could win every time and so the human could have any prize he desired. On the other hand, he couldn't really compete with Edward. All of Harry's attempts at leveling the playing field—including, but not limited to, making the vampire close his eyes and spin in circles before throwing a baseball into the milk jug—failed.

It was late afternoon when they left the amusement park and headed for a small restaurant that Edward assured Harry that all of his research indicated had the most authentic Italian cuisine in the region. It was there that Edward turned the conversation from the various lighthearted topics of the day to something considerably more serious.

"I was wondering what your plans were for your self-imposed 'British deadline.'"

The change of topic caught Harry off guard and, for a few moments, he was unable to come up with anything to say. "Well . . . I, uh, actually haven't thought about it for months. I guess I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it. Especially with what happened in December." The last part was a reference to the snapping of his wand.

"Good," Edward said with a bit of satisfaction. "Then that means you'll give me a chance to try and convince you not to go back."

Edward's statement caused the teen to choke slightly on the water was sipping. "_Not_ go back? As in, never?" he attempted to clarify.

"Well," Edward began, "I didn't necessarily mean 'never' go back. I just think that maybe you shouldn't go back with the intention of confronting Voldemort." Edward lowered his voice considerably when he began to explicitly discuss things of a magical nature.

"He murdered my parents," Harry replied hotly.

"I know. And I don't want the same thing to happen to you," the vampire said bluntly.

"So, what? I just let him have a free pass?"

"I didn't say anything about him getting a free pass. I don't mean to be insulting in the least by this, Harry, but please think about things logically. Assuming that he is still alive—something, I might add, that is a very big assumption—do you really believe that you'll be the one to bring him down?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You haven't practiced magic for nearly two years. You have a fraction of the magical education and experience of Voldemort. Your wand, which you have frequently cited as the only reason you survived your last encounter with him, has been broken. You were expelled from school and, for all we know, are currently a wanted fugitive because of your use of magic in front of a, I believe the correct term is 'Muggle.'"

"You don't think I can do it?" Harry asked almost dejectedly.

Edward reached across the table and took one of Harry's hands in his own. "I know that you can do anything you set your mind to. But I also know that you are facing some very steep odds and that, therefore, the cost to you to beat him will be extraordinarily high. Even assuming the best—that you aren't a fugitive and you can just waltz into a store a buy a replacement wand—you have years of education to make up just to be on an even footing with the average adult wizard. It could take years, even decades, to match Voldemort."

Harry sat in silence for a bit. "I guess there were always some flaws in my plan of sitting things out for two years and then returning. Certain magics . . . have always come easier for me. I guess I figured that I'd be able to just go back and be on par with my classmates in Defense Against the Dark Arts. It never occurred to me that they've all been getting better while I've been standing still. Hell, I'm not even standing still; I'm going backwards. I'm out of practice and forgetting the things I used to know.

"But," Harry said with a great deal of resolve, "he's killing innocent people. Even if it takes a very long time, I still feel that I should do everything I can to try and stop that. There's that quote, you know, about good people doing nothing."

"All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing," Edward said morosely.

"What kind of person would I be if I just sat by and did nothing?"

The vampire frowned before he said anything else. "So that's your decision then? You're definitely going back? Just so that you can help out a bunch of people that dumped you on the Dursleys for a decade and then let you face terror and near-death year after year?"

Harry gave Edward's hand a tight squeeze. "I think it's really sweet when you worry about me like this." He was quiet for a moment before saying anything else. "I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm at least going to take a trip back to check in. Let Ron and Hermione and Sirius know that I'm okay. Beyond that . . . You've given me a lot to think about."

Edward nodded his head up and down a bit before letting Harry return his focus to his meal. There was a tense silence between them for the rest of dinner and most of the car ride back to Forks.

"I don't want you to go back to Britain," Edward finally said to break the silence. "I think that you should leave Voldemort to the Aurors; they're trained for it."

"Yeah, but," Harry started before being cut off by Edward.

"That having been said, I will support you in any decision you make. I would, however, like for you to promise me that you'll think it through. Talk to me about your decision before you take any action."

"I promise," the human said as he reached across the seat to hold Edward's hand. The vampire smiled at his human boyfriend as he continued the drive back to Forks.

Harry was surprised when they drove past the street that would have taken them to his home. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see in just a moment," Edward said with a sly smile.

"You're up to something," Harry accused.

"Of course I am. You figured that out hours ago," the immortal said as he turned the silver Volvo into the small parking lot of Forks High School.

"The school?" Harry asked, utterly bewildered.

Edward pulled the car into a parking space, got out, and then went around to open Harry's door for him.

"This is a very important spot for us, love."

Harry accepted Edward's offered hand and got out of the car. Once out, he took a minute to look around the lot and try to figure out why the parking lot of the high school would be so important.

"I was standing right here," Edward said as he moved to stand in a spot next to the back fender of the car, "with Alice. You were over walking up the sidewalk. It was the first time I ever saw you."

"You remember where you were standing the first time you ever saw me?" Harry asked with a laugh as he joined Edward. "Of course you do, Mr. Vampire."

"I remember it because it was a turning point. The real beginning of my life."

Edward reached out and placed his hands on either side of the wizard's waist. Gently, he picked Harry up, turned around, and placed the teen on the back of the car. Harry was surprised; the Cullens were all so protective of their vehicles that he would never have guessed Edward would have him or anyone else sit on one of them.

"I meant what I said earlier, you know. Whatever you decide, I'll be right there with you. If you decide to go to Britain. If you decide to stay in Forks. Go to college. Stay human. Become a vampire. I will support whatever decision you make."

Edward reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver box and handed it to his boyfriend. Harry took the small box in his hand and shot a questioning look at Edward before pulling the lid off of the box.

Harry felt his heart skip a beat when he saw what was inside: a gold ring with a thin trail of diamonds embedded all along the outside of the band.

The wizard quickly looked back towards Edward to ask him if the ring was what he suspected it might be. He knew the answer as soon as he found that the vampire had lowered himself down on one knee.

"I love you, Harry. And whatever decision you make regarding your future, I want to be right there beside you. For the good times and the bad. For as long as you'll have me," the vampire said with words so devout and meaningful that no person in all of creation would dare to doubt their veracity. "Will you please do me the honor of marrying me?"

Harry didn't hesitate in the slightest before answering. "Yes."

**A/N:** I know it seems a bit quick, but please keep in mind that the previous chapter jumped the story by six months.


	25. Chapter 25

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 25: The Next Step**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Twenty-Four – The Next Step**

Harry's answer left his mouth before he took the time to really think about what Edward was asking him. They'd never talked about marriage before; at least, not a marriage between the two of them. They'd discussed the various marriages between Edward's family members, but never once did the topic of Edward and Harry getting married come up. As far as Harry knew, it wasn't even legal for them to get married. But answering 'yes' just seemed natural. Instinctual. Right.

He loved Edward. Even when the vampire and his family were gone the previous year, Harry couldn't imagine himself finding love with another person. The few times he tried to entertain the thought of being with someone else, he always found that the image of the boy he was imagining would fade away and become Edward Cullen. Harry knew that he wanted to spend all of his life, whether it be a mortal life or an immortal one, with Edward. It was simply a fact of his life.

Why then did he suddenly feel so guilty at having said yes to Edward's proposal?

The human had little time to think about such things. His answer and barely escaped his mouth before Edward's lips forcefully crashed against his own. There was a joy and strength and even a possessiveness in the kiss that Harry couldn't remember feeling before.

By the time the kiss ended, Harry found himself a bit dizzy and lightheaded. As considerate as Edward was, his passion sometimes caused him to forget small details such as the human's need for air. After the kiss was done, Edward leaned forward so that he could kiss and suck at the side of Harry's neck. The feeling was incredible to Harry; the wizard knew that the action would leave a mark that would still be visible when classes resumed on Monday.

It was then that Harry realized what was nagging at the back of his brain: the pack. This was the first step in Jacob's great fear. The wolf feared that Harry would abandon his friends for Edward. If he became a vampire, Harry wouldn't be able to remain in Forks any longer; the physical changes would be too hard to explain. Harry would have to leave Forks. And because he would be a vampire, the treaty would forbid him from ever going to La Push, even for a visit.

He could remain a human. But then, how long would it be before his aging would strain the relationship between Edward and himself? Not that he thought Edward so shallow as to base the relationship on physical appearance alone. But the time they spent together in public would look increasingly odd. Harry would be unable to masquerade as a high school student alongside Edward and his siblings. Eventually, he would grow old and die and leave Edward a widower. Could he really not become a vampire?

It was impossible to remain with Edward the way he wanted to if he remained a human, Harry realized. He would have to become a vampire for the relationship to survive and mature. But what was the cost going to be?

His humanity seemed like such a small price to pay. He had, in recent months, spent a great deal of time thinking about his mortality. He had accepted that he would miss out on growing any older and having children. He had also accepted that he would never be able to have certain careers. All of those things seemed like nothing compared to the thought of losing Jacob and Leah. But the thought of losing Edward again was almost too painful to think about.

"Edward," Harry said softly. It took a moment, but the vampire ceased his assault on Harry's neck and looked up at him.

"Yes?" Edward asked mischeviously.

"I hate to end the moment. I mean, I _really_ hate to end it. But I have to go to La Push."

"We just got engaged and the first thing you want to do is go see the wolves?" Edward asked in jokingly upset manner. In truth, he knew that Harry would want to tell Jacob and Leah at the first opportunity.

Harry reached a hand out and caressed his fiancé's cheek. "I just have to settle some things with them."

Edward gave Harry a soft kiss on his lips before moving towards the unassaulted side of his neck. "I don't think I like these things if they drag you away from me," he said between kisses.

"I'm becoming a vampire," Harry said resolvedly.

That statement tore Edward away from his human's neck to look him in the eye.

"You're what?"

"I'm becoming a vampire," the human repeated.

"When did you decide that?" Edward asked.

"Well . . . I've been thinking about it since before the big fight with Victoria; another train of thought you have a shapeshifter to thank for. I'd pretty well reached the decision to become a vampire before you asked me to marry you, but that did sort of crystallize my thinking about it. I don't have a timetable or anything. I mean, I've told you what wizards think of vampires, so it'll have to be after whatever I decide to do about Britain. But it's happening sooner or later."

Edward's face was very hard for Harry to read. He couldn't tell if the vampire was happy or upset at the decision.

"You do want me to become a vampire, don't you?" Harry pressed.

"Want you to? It is something I've secretly desired for quite some time. But I do not want you making this decision because of my proposal. It should be your decision and your decision alone," Edward replied.

"And it is. This is my decision. One human lifetime loving you isn't enough for me. I haven't brought the topic up with you because I didn't want you to feel obligated to stay with me. If I became a vampire and you changed your mind about being with me . . . I was afraid you'd feel stuck."

"Silly human," Edward said with a playful smirk. "When are you going to realize that there is nothing you could do that would change my mind about loving you?"

Harry held up the box in his hand. "I think I'm starting to get the picture."

"Good," Edward said. The vampire plucked the ring out of the box and started to slip it on Harry's finger. He stopped part way and looked to Harry for confirmation that he should continue. Once he had that silent assent, he finished slipping the ring on Harry's finger. It fit perfectly. "So, what does becoming a vampire have to do with you visiting La Push? You know that you can't remain in Forks once you're turned, so the treaty won't matter."

"I know," Harry said as he admired the ring on his finger for a moment. "But I need to talk to Jacob and them just the same. I need to make sure that we'll still be friends."

"I don't suppose you know the meaning of 'mortal enemies,' do you?" Edward asked dryly.

"Jacob and Leah fought with Sam over my right to decide for myself whether I wanted to become a vampire or not. But if I become a vampire, I'll be banned from La Push and I won't be able to return to Forks. They'd have to come visit me off of the Reservation. I need to know whether they'll do that. I need to know that they realize that what I am doesn't change who I am."

"If it would make you feel better, I could buy you a puppy," the vampire joked.

"Not the same. Besides, Jacob's already house trained," Harry joked in return.

"Very well, my love. I will escort you to the border," the vampire said as he pulled Harry off of the back of the car and walked with him to the passenger side door. "I will wait at the border until you are finished with your visit. You'll need a ride back and I would, after all, like you to be with me when I tell the rest the family."

Harry slid into the car. Edward's speed and enhanced senses made it so that Harry didn't need to wait to continue the conversation. "They don't know?"

"No," Edward answered. "Though Jasper does suspect. He was in the house when I left to take my mother's wedding ring to the jeweler's."

"Your mother's ring?" Harry asked in amazement.

"My mother's ring was much more effeminate. The diamonds were set upon a thinner band in a pile. I had the gold melted down and used to fashion a broader band for you. More gold had to be added to it, of course. And then I had the diamonds from my mother's ring reset into the new band. It makes it a family heirloom, with a twist."

"It makes it perfect," Harry corrected.

It took virtually no time at all for Edward to drive Harry to the border between the Reservation and the vampires' territory. Harry and Edward shared one last kiss before the human exited the car and made his way to the Black house.

It came as no surprise to Harry that all four members of Jacob's pack were hanging out at the home. What did surprise him, however, was that Paul was there as well.

"You stink of leech," Paul said as soon as Jacob let Harry inside.

"Screw you," Jacob replied hotly.

"Jacob!" Billy called out a reprimand from the kitchen.

Harry was careful to keep his left hand in his pocket as he greeted Seth, Quil, and Leah. "I feel like I'm missing something," he said after the 'hellos' were finished.

Leah decided to fill Harry in. "Paul imprinted on Rachel," he said simply.

Harry had only met Rachel once in passing. She was Jacob's older sister who attended a university somewhere in the Midwest. Harry thought the school was located in Kansas, but he'd we wasn't sure; all of the states in the middle of the country seemed to blur together to him.

"Yeah, so now he thinks he has the right to be over here all the time, even when she's not around," Jacob groused.

As if on cue, Rachel picked that moment to walk in the door directly behind Harry. "Oh, hello, Harry" she said when she saw the boy standing in the living room. By her use of Harry's real name, the boy deduced that she'd be let in on the big secret. But judging from Leah's reaction, no one had bothered to tell her that.

"_What_ did you call him?" she asked dangerously.

Rachel seemed taken aback by Leah's sudden hostile tone. "I-I called him 'Harry.' That is his name, right?" she asked uncertainly.

"Paul!" Jacob, Leah, and Seth called out at the same time.

"What?" he asked indignantly. "You wanted me to lie to protect your little leech-sucking princess's cover?"

For a minute, Harry thought for sure that Jacob was going to deck Paul. Fortunately, Billy put himself between the two werewolves.

"Easy, boys," he said forcefully. "Jacob, control your temper. And you, Paul. You had no right to tell Harry's secret."

"Like hell I didn't," Paul replied. "He's probably telling the leeches everything he knows about us." Evidently, whatever tentative friendship Harry and Paul and formed during the past year was gone.

"I haven't told them anything. Besides, I doubt there is anything about you I could tell them that they don't already know," Harry defended himself. "They were here back in the days of your ancestors, remember?"

Paul just sneered at Harry in response.

Billy let out a sigh. "Harry, you know you're always welcome, but I think we need to straighten things out here for a bit. Do you think you could come back tomorrow?"

Harry didn't get a chance to respond.

"What the hell? Paul's the one being a little piss-ant! Why the hell should Harry be the one to leave?" Seth argued.

Billy was trying his best to remain calm, but it wasn't really working at this point. "Because, this is pack business. And Harry isn't part of the pack," he snapped.

"Harry is part of _my_ pack," Jacob said, emphasizing the point that he no longer recognized Sam Uley's pack as his own. "Paul isn't. He's content to be Sam's bitch."

Paul finally lost it at that point and leapt past Billy and onto Jacob. Harry could see the telltale signs of him beginning his transformation: fur appearing on his body, the elongating of the lower part of his face, the stretching of his limbs. Seth pulled Harry back out of reach of the fight. Leah did the same for Rachel as the girl let out a shriek that made Harry suspect that this was the first time she'd seen Paul transform.

Jacob began his transformation a moment before Paul made contact with him.

Quil, fortunately, had the presence of mind to hit both Jacob and Paul in a running tackle that forced them outside of the still-open door. Billy was bound to be relieved that the fight wasn't going to happen inside the house. He'd had enough trouble buying replacement clothes for everything Jacob ruined; the last thing he needed was the interior of his house being destroyed.

Harry could only see bits and pieces of the fight through the front door, but it was short. Paul was too hotheaded to think straight and, as far as size was concerned, he way out of his league. Jacob had been the largest wolf except for Sam before the breaking of the pack, but now he appeared to be a bit larger than his former alpha. Paul tried to bite at Jacob a few times, but the bigger wolf smacked him away with enough force to kill most animals. It only took a few blows for Paul to be rendered unconscious and left bleeding all over the front yard.

Rachel let out another cry when she saw what had happened to Paul, but Leah was quick to reassure her that Paul would be okay. Werewolf healing and all that.

Once he was certain that his opponent had been subdued, Jacob transformed back into his human form and made his way towards his room. Harry was careful to not look directly at the naked man.

A very tense silence descended on the room once the fight was over. Billy was shaking his head in a disappointed manner. Harry wasn't sure if the man was upset because of the fight, its cause, or both. He had a sneaking suspicion that Billy blamed him for the drama between the La Push werewolves in recent months.

Jacob disappeared into the hall that led to the bedrooms and returned about two minutes later wearing a pair of jeans shorts. "So, Harry, what's new with you?" he asked casually.


	26. Chapter 26

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 26: Breaking the News**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Twenty-Five – Breaking the News**

The casual way in which Jacob asked his question made the entire experience feel a bit surreal. The shaggy werewolf had just beaten another werewolf unconscious and now he was acting like nothing had happened.

Before answering, Harry looked back over his shoulder to see where Rachel was checking on the unconscious form of Paul. "Uh . . . I think that maybe it can wait."

Jacob followed the wizard's gaze to the front yard. "Don't mind him. He'll be alright when he wakes up."

"Right up until the next time you two decide to have at it," Billy interjected.

"Not my fault Paul's the way he is," Jacob said. He walked past his father without even looking at him.

"Damn right," Leah added. She moved to stand where Seth had pulled Harry away from the fight.

Quil was standing awkwardly by the door. He had tackled Paul and Jacob hard enough to knock them out of the house and then backed away so as not to be pulled into the fight himself. Now he was just standing by the door looking like he didn't know what to do. He was clearly conflicted between his loyalty to his new pack and his old friend.

"C'mon, Harry, let's get out of her," Jacob said as he took of Harry's arm and led him out of the house. Leah and Seth followed, but Quil remained planted next to the door.

"How long have things been like that?" Harry asked as the group exited the house and into the night air. He hadn't seen Paul at all since before the battle with Victoria. In fact, other than one or two tense encounters with Sam Uley, he hadn't had direct contact with any member of the 'old pack,' as he'd come to think of them.

"What do you mean? Paul's always been like that," Leah joked.

Harry smiled at Leah's jab at Paul's personality. "Yeah, okay. He's always been a bit hot-headed, but I don't remember him ever being that violent."

"He liked to pick fights like that in the first few weeks after he transformed," Jacob said. "But he calmed down after about a while. He started getting real touchy again after the lee- er, the Cullens returned."

"Billy thinks it might be something instinctual," Seth added. The youngest of the werewolves present moved in front of where Harry, Leah, and Jacob were walking side by side. He turned around and began to walk backwards so that he could more easily talk to Harry while he walked. "He thinks that we all started to transform in first place because the Cullens and then that red-headed vampire and her pals were 'round. He thinks that tempers run higher when there are more of them around."

"Makes a certain amount of sense," Harry admitted.

"It's a load of bull," Leah interjected argumentatively. "Billy just doesn't want to admit that Paul's a little shit. He has this whole fantasy about Paul and Rachel being the perfect parents of a whole litter."

"Ugghh! That's my sister, you know!" Jacob complained.

"Yeah, well, if you thought he was mad before . . ." Harry started.

"He's gonna be really pissed when he finds out that you've decided to become a vampire," Leah finished the thought.

Harry stopped abruptly and looked at his friend in surprise. "W-What? How?"

"I've known it was heading this way for a while. I'm pretty surprised it took this long," Leah explained. She might have expected it, but she sounded really unhappy about the idea.

"What?" Seth cried. "No!"

By this point all four friends had stopped walking. Harry decided to take the plunge and finally pulled his left hand out of his pocket. Jacobs's eyes bulged out comically when they caught sight of the engagement ring. Leah, by comparison, just looked resigned.

"Edward asked me to marry him. I said yes," Harry explained simply. The horrified look on Seth's face at those words made Harry's stomach churn awfully. Seth's horror quickly gave way to fury and he stormed away from his friend.

"I wanted to make sure that I'm not going to cause a war," the wizard said quietly as he watched Seth stomp away. "I know it'll be hard. I won't be able to live in Forks anymore. And, of course, I'd be banned from La Push. And Sam will try to kill me and the Cullens because of the breach of the treaty."

"No he won't," Jacob interrupted Harry's mild rant.

"He won't?" the wizard asked in surprise.

"Well, he probably won't. See, it was my ancestor—Ephraim Black—that made the treaty with the Cullens. When I was part of Sam's pack and recognized him as the alpha, he got to make all of the decisions. But I'm not part of his pack anymore. When I split off and became the alpha of my own pack, my pack basically became the true pack of La Push because I'm the La Push alpha by blood. Sam's pack is just a bunch of squaters that we let live on our land. Sam and them have to respect the treaty that my pack has with the Cullens as long as they live in La Push. They breach a treaty that the true La Push alpha has bound all of La Push to, then they get banished from La Push. As long as I give you permission, then the treaty won't be breached by you becoming a vampire. Sam and his pack can't do anything. They can all just piss up a rope for all I care," the alpha explained in an all-business voice.

"Oh," Harry said. He looked at the two werewolves that had remained with him. Leah looked oddly calm and resigned. Jacob's face looked like he was every bit the detached alpha his business voice conveyed, but his eyes told Harry that this was a nightmare for him. "So when I come back to the area to visit, we'll be cool, right? As long as I don't cross the border or get seen by humans who might recognize me."

Jacob looked taken aback by Harry's question. "What do you mean?"

"I meant every word that I told you last year, Jake. I'm not going to let my relationship with Edward destroy my friendship with you. I know it will be difficult, but I'll visit. And call a whole bunch."

"Really?" Jacob asked hopefully.

"Of course," Harry said sincerely. "What? Do you think I'm a liar or something?" he then challenged playfully.

"N-No," the alpha stammered. " I just thought that . . . well, you know."

Harry gave Jacob a wry grin. "I know. You thought that I'd been too busy being a ravenous animal to think about being friends with you."

Jacob gave a short, embarrassed nod in response.

The wizard turned his attention to Leah at that point. She still seemed oddly resigned about the whole thing. "Okay, you're freaking me out a bit. Why aren't you screaming?"

"Because it's your choice," Leah said blandly. "Don't get me wrong, I think that you're making the wrong choice. No, scratch that. I _know_ you're making the wrong choice. But, it's your choice to make."

Harry let out a relieved sigh. "I thought for sure I was going to get a 'mortal enemies' speech."

"You probably would have, if you hadn't been dying a few months ago," Jacob said.

"What do you mean?"

"When we—and by 'we,' I mean Seth, Jacob, Quil, and myself—thought that you were gonna die, we kinda warmed up to the idea of you becoming a vampire in order to save your life. Once we started to think about it we realized it would still be you in there. You'd just smell a lot worse and have a way weirder diet," Leah explained. "It stuck with us."

Harry thought about Leah's words for a minute. The part that he really focused on was the list of names: Seth, Jacob, Quil, and Leah. The four wolves who thought that he had the right to make his own decision about becoming a vampire were the four werewolves that had split away from Sam Uley's pack.

"So, the fight with Sam really is because of me."

Leah seemed genuinely surprised at Harry's conclusion. "What makes you think that?"

"I'm not an idiot. All of the wolves who hold a particular controversial opinion about me rebel and then form their own pack. It's not exactly rocket science."

"Well, I was pretty sure rockets were going to be used at one point in the fight," Jacob joked in a bad attempt at lightening the mood.

"The fight wasn't about you exactly," Leah began to explain. "Your situation just made things pretty clear."

"How so?"

"Sam was pretty defensive about the whole thing. Whenever I'd bring the issue up, he'd say that I was just trying to find something to fight with him about. It was really stupid because every time we were in our wolf forms at the same time, I could tell what he was thinking: can't let their numbers increase. He was pissed off that we'd be in favor of the Cullen coven getting any bigger than it already was." Leah hesitated for a minute before continuing. "As your health got worse, so did the fights between some of the pack members. Things came to a head when Seth and Jacob saw you all unconscious and bloody after the fight with Victoria. They started to argue with Sam and he . . . well, he used an injunction to make them stop arguing with him."

Harry let out an involuntary gasp at that. The injunction was the power of a pack alpha to issue a binding order on his subordinates. As far as Harry knew, Sam had never used one before.

Jacob took over the story at that point. "The injunction felt like this great weight being forced on us. It was suffocating. And it pissed me off. Sam actually used his authority to stop any discussion about you becoming a vampire. He used his authority to enforce his views on us. I knew that if he did it once, he'd do it again. And suddenly, it was like I realized I didn't have to follow his orders anymore."

"You became an alpha," Harry deduced.

"Exactly. I left Sam's pack. And Seth, Leah, and Quil followed. Sam and the others tried to stop us, but the shock of not being able to hear us anymore . . . The sudden separation put everyone in a state of shock."

"So the two packs can't hear each other's thoughts?" the green-eyed boy questioned.

"No," Leah answered. "Different packs, different pack mentalities. Jacob and Sam can hear one another's thoughts to a certain extent when they're near one another. But other than that, no. The packs are wholly separate."

"So . . ." Harry began, holding the word out for several seconds longer than necessary. "I started the fight, but it wasn't my fault?" he asked uncertainly.

"Your situation was the catalyst for a fight that was bound to happen sooner or later. Sam would have used his power like that sooner or later. He was too damn scared of losing control," Leah reassured her friend.

"Then you're okay with me marrying Edward and becoming a vampire?"

Jacob and Leah shared a look before Jacob answered. "'Okay' is probably too strong a word. 'Accepting' might be better."

"'Utterly opposed, but accepting,'" Leah amended.

"And you'll still be friends with me?"

"Of course," Leah said as she pulled Harry into a one-armed hug. Jacob gave the wizard a bear hug as soon as his packmate released him.

"What about Seth?"

Leah wondered, and not for the first time, how Harry could be so oblivious as to how her younger brother felt about him. She always assumed that the wizard knew but was caring enough to not mention it; she figured Harry was just sparing Seth's feelings. "He's a bit more strongly opposed to you becoming a vampire now that you're not about to die. He'll come around. Just give him time."

"Okay then. What about Sam's pack? I assume I've got to let them know sooner or later."

"I'll deal with them," Jacob said with a bit of an edge to his voice. "I'm going to have to talk to Sam about Paul, anyways. If Paul can't control himself well enough to not transform that close to my sister, then he needs to stay the hell away until he can."

"Sam won't like that one bit," Leah pointed out.

"Like I said before. Like I said earlier, he can go piss up a rope if he doesn't like it,"

The trio turned towards the border and stopped talking about such serious matters; instead, they joked about Harry's upcoming wedding. Jacob criticized Harry's ring for being too girly and asked if the wizard had a dress picked out. Leah made a point of pointing out that Washington wouldn't recognize their marriage. But, then again, what state _did_ recognize the marriage between a century-old vampire and a sixteen-year-old—soon to be seventeen-year-old—wizard?

When the three friends reached the La Push border, Harry was handed off like a child of divorced parents at the end of the weekend. Jacob and Leah gave Edward stern looks that warned of grievous bodily injury should he harm Harry in any way. Edward responded with a polite, if somewhat strained, smile.

Soon enough, Harry and Edward were at the Cullen house. This reception, Harry knew, was bound to be much more welcoming. Edward had wanted to walk in, hold Harry in his arms, and shout the announcement to the whole room. Harry had something a little different in mind.

The happy couple entered the living room where the various other family members were sitting about doing the various things that immortals did to pass the time: Carlisle was reading, Emmett and Jasper were playing video games, Rosalie was silently watching the game, and Alice was quietly talking with Esme. Without skipping a beat, Harry walked directly to Alice and raised his hand so that she could get a good look at the ring.

"Not too over the top. I reserve veto power on the guest list and anything that will make me look too girly. Otherwise, just have at it."

Alice squealed with delight at the broad power she had just been given to plan a wedding. It took everyone else a moment to figure out exactly what was going on.


	27. Chapter 27

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 27: Devil in the Details**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Twenty-Six – Devil in the Details**

Harry had planned to spend all of Sunday studying for finals. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be. The best laid plans of mice and men and all that. The boy had made a good faith effort at studying, he really had. He just found himself to be far more easily distracted than usual.

The first thing Harry tried to do was study the flashcards his boyfriend—correction, fiancé—had made for him. After being momentarily distracted by the concept that Edward was his fiancé and that he was, therefore, a fiancé in return, the wizard was distracted by his engagement ring.

It was almost twenty minutes after he sat down in the large, overstuffed recliner in his living room, and he was still staring blankly at the first flashcard. The problem wasn't with the card, but the fact when he looked at the card, he also looked at the hand that was holding the card. The ring on his left hand kept drawing Harry's attention away from his studies.

After staring at the ring for an extended period of time, the boy found himself fascinated by saying things out loud.

"I'm getting married," he said to his empty house. With the exception of the ticking of a clock, it was the only sound that could be heard. Harry repeated the phrase over and over again, relishing the new experience and the way it excited him to hear the words.

"Harry James Potter-Cullen," he said next. He frowned at the sound of the words.

"Jay Harris-Cullen," he tried next. Still no good.

"Harry Masen." Nope. Attaching Edward's original surname didn't do any good.

"Edward Potter?" Definitely not.

"Harry Cullen." Simple. To the point. No hyphenation. No dealing with aliases or past lives. Edward was a Cullen and Harry was marrying him. He would have two parents, a brother, and a sister who all shared his last name. After Emmett and Rosalie were married again, he would have two sisters who shared his last name. At least, he would right up until Alice married Jasper and became a Hale once more.

Harry Potter would become Harry Cullen. It worked.

Satisfied that he liked the sound of his married name, the dark-haired boy tried once again to focus on his studies. Once again, he failed. His mind kept drifting to Alice and all of the wedding plans she was bound to be making in his absence.

He'd only spent two hours with the Cullens the previous evening. Although Alice had tried to start discussing the specifics of the wedding, Esme had insisted that Harry and Edward recount every little detail of the proposal. Alice hadn't gotten the chance to start her planning during Harry's visit, but had probably had ample time to make plans in the hours since.

After realizing that there was just no way he was going to accomplish anything, Harry got up from his chair, packed his study materials in his book bag, and set off for the Cullen household. It was a decently long walk from his house, but it was a wonderful May day in Forks. The sun was shining—which meant that the Cullen family would have to remain inside all day—and the birds were chirping. The whole day seemed to reflect Harry's chipper mood.

When the boy arrived at the Cullen household, he was met at the door by a frowning Edward.

"You should have called. I would have come pick you up," the vampire said as he let Harry into the house.

"There was no need for that. Besides, what would have happened if Charlie had seen you and insisted on chatting. Or that daughter of his; she really is quite taken with you."

"Still," Edward said in defeat. "Perhaps it's time you learned to drive."

"You've been trying to give me driving lessons since we first started dating. One would think you'd have gotten the hint by now, especially after how disasterous it was the one time I gave in. I don't drive. Flying is more my style," the human said as the pair made their way to the living room.

The female vampires—Esme, Rosalie, and Alice—were hunched over a number of magazines that Harry was fairly positive were wedding-related. Jasper was reading a book quietly on the couch while Emmett watched an old black and white American football game. Carlisle wasn't in the living room, so the wizard assumed he was in his upstairs office.

"Harry!" Alice cried when she was him enter. "I didn't think I'd get to see you today. This is wonderful, I can go over the ideas I've already come up with."

"Part of why I came over," Harry replied.

"Oh really," Edward said with a mock hurt. "And here I thought it was my irresistible charm."

"Oh, darling, when are you going to realize that I only want you for your body?" Harry asked in the most serious tone he could muster. He failed to maintain a straight face and found himself laughing as he finished the sentence.

Emmett let lose a hearty laugh at Harry's joking question. "Hey, that gives me an idea on how Edward can help Harry study. They use the flashcards, and every time Harry gets an answer right, Edward has to take off an article of clothing. Every time Harry gets an answer wrong, Edward puts something back on. Of course, you'll need to do this upstairs so as not to blind the rest of us."

Esme looked utterly scandalized at the suggestion and Harry felt his face going bright red. Sure, he liked to joke around with Edward about the physical aspects of their relationship, but Emmett's jokes always seemed to strike a nerve.

"He does bring up a good point," Edward said after a moment.

"Whoa, dude. I was only kidding," Emmett said quickly.

"Not that!" the bronze-haired vampire said in exasperation. "I meant about the studying. I thought you'd planned on spending the whole day studying."

"I did. But . . ."

"But what?"

"I kept getting sidetracked. I started to think about the wedding. A lot."

"You have some ideas?" Alice asked from behind Harry.

"Not really. But there are a bunch of things you'll need me for, right? I mean, a chunk of the details will be influenced by the date and Edward and I haven't picked one yet."

"Actually," Alice began guiltily, "I've already picked a date."

"You have?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Yes. I was going to run it past you before doing anything, you can ask Edward. I just put a great deal of thought into it last night and I believe I've picked the perfect date."

"Okay," Harry said taking a deep breath to prepare himself. "When am I getting married?"

"August 2."

"August 2?" Harry asked.

"Alice thought it would be good to wait until after you turned 17. That way the other wizards won't be able to do anything about it because you'll be considered an adult. You'll be able to invite your friends, if you want. And although we can't be legally married, you'll be old enough that 'Uncle Seymour' can help you get emancipated with no real problems," Edward explained as he wrapped his arms around Harry's lower stomach from behind. "Telling people, like Chief Swan, that you've been emancipated will solve a few problems."

"Well then why the second? Why not the first?"

"Impatient?" Edward all but purred in Harry's ear.

"A bit," Harry confessed.

Edward placed a tender kiss on the nape of Harry's neck before continuing. "July 31 is you birthday. August 1 will be your bachelor party. August 2 will be your wedding."

The wizard turned himself around in his immortal's arms and wrapped his own arms around the vampire's neck. "I don't need a bachelor party."

"I insist," Edward said with a smile.

"Only if you have one as well," Harry replied.

"Oh, I am quite certain that Jasper and Emmett will insist that I have one as well."

"You three and a stripper. Now there's an eerie thought," Harry laughed.

Edward laughed as well. "It will be a hunt," he clarified.

"Have to make sure he's good and strong for the wedding night," Emmett said from his position on the couch.

"Three parties in three days," Harry mused aloud. "I guess I can live with that."

"Good," Edward said.

"But I'm not sure about inviting people from Britian," the dark-haired teen said. He could practically feel Edward's surprise at that declaration. Harry closed the little space between them and rested his head against the top of Edward's chest. The little hair that the human had grown since the end of his chemotherapy provided little protection against the cold of the vampire's skin.

"Why not?" Edward questioned quietly.

"Wizards hate vampires. They'll hate the idea of us getting married. Hell, they don't even know I'm gay. I think that it would be a really bad idea if the first time we see each other in two years is at my wedding to a male vampire," Harry explained. "And I certainly don't want to risk anyone finding me before I turn 17 and am legally free to do what I want, so going over there beforehand is out and sending invitations would be a problem."

Although Edward's response seemed to come almost instantaneously to Harry, the vampire actually thoroughly analyzed Harry's rationale. Such thought processes were greatly accelerated in vampires. "We can delay the wedding; nothing is set in stone. You would be able to visit Britain and smooth things over with your friends before the wedding."

Edward hated that idea and he only suggested it for Harry's sake. The vampire hated the idea of Harry ever returning to Britain. Harry's answer to the suggestion was a great relief to him.

"No," the wizard began in a very sure voice. "I've been giving it a great deal of thought, and you're right. Me going back to Britain for anything more than a visit is just plain stupid."

"I never said it was stupid," Edward interjected.

"But you should have. because it is. The only reason why any trip to Britain would be anything more than a visit would be if Voldemort is still around. And I'm not going to have anything to do with that. I've paid my dues. Me trying to mess with that now would be like . . . well, it would be an unarmed, untrained kid walking into a warzone. I'd just get myself killed. There's a decent chance that my unskilled interference would get innocent people killed. So, I'm going to go for a visit, and that's it. And you've just helped me decide when: the time between when we get married and when I'm turned."

Edward did his best not to smile at Harry's decision; he was thrilled with it. The vampire was getting everything he wanted: Harry for all time. He wasn't going to have to fear for Harry's safety during some damnable wizarding conflict. The love of his life was going to marry him, settle his mortal affairs, and then become his immortal companion.

The only dim spot was the fear that Harry might not be getting what he wanted. That concept haunted Edward. The vampire was determined to give Harry every opportunity to change his mind; to move back the wedding or extend his trip to Britain or even not become a vampire at all. But such things could wait. Edward didn't want to ruin the moment by pressing Harry on any of those issues.

The rest of the day soon settled into a nice routine. Harry and Edward sat at the kitchen table and studied for the following day's exam; not that the vampire needed to study. Alice would interrupt about once every half-hour to run a detail or two of the wedding past the human. Edward was surprised at how rarely Harry used his veto power.

The bronze-haired vampire did his best to keep his fiancé on track, but he quickly found it exceedingly difficult because Harry had a tendency to run his bare feet along the inside of the vampire's leg. Behind the human's innocent eyes lurked the mind of a diabolical genius, Edward concluded.

Monday morning saw Harry and the Cullens returning to school.

"So I haven't asked in a while," Harry began as he stepped out of Edward's Volvo. "What do our classmates believe is going on between us?"

"A few suspect the truth. But for the most part, they believe that you and I are once again the best of friends. And that you're dating Leah Clearwater," Edward answered.

The pair started to walk across the parking lot when an idea struck Harry.

"Hey Edward?"

"Yes?"

"It's our last week at this school. I mean, we'll be going to a different school _after_, right?" Harry asked.

"That is correct," Edward answered as he tried to figure out where Harry was going heading.

"We never let them know what was going on because of the backlash we expected. I'm going to have to lie about one thing or another for the rest of my life and I'd really like to be honest about this. About us."

Edward's eyes widened in surprise at that. "Are you certain? Teenagers can be quite cruel."

"I know," Harry said as he nodded his head. "I'm sure about this. Besides, it's only a week."

With that Edward closed the space between him and Harry and gave him a tender kiss in front of almost the entire student body of FHS.


	28. Chapter 28

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 28: Graduation**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Twenty-Seven – Graduation**

Just as Edward had said, teenagers could be cruel. Harry could barely take two steps in the school during finals week without someone tossing an obscene comment in his direction. This kind of talk wasn't completely new to the wizard; he'd been the victim of it a handful of times before. However, he'd never had to deal with it on such a forceful and vile scale.

The Cullens had been Harry's saving grace. Alice and Edward stuck to the boy like glue. Rosalie had a never-ending supply of comebacks for the various insults directed at her brother and his fiancé. Jasper's empathic abilities gave Harry the serenity he needed to let the insults roll off of his back. And Emmett made Mike Newton really regret trying to shove Harry against a locker. For days after the encounter, the largest of the vampire coven claimed that he could smell Newton wet himself a little.

Not all of the students at Forks High were as awful as Mike Newton and his buddies. Edward told Harry repeatedly that there were several students who had nothing but good thoughts about their relationship. They were just too scared to say anything because supporting the only openly gay couple in Forks would have been social suicide.

Harry didn't know whether or not he should believe Edward. He didn't see any support when he looked in the eyes of his classmates. Most looked disgusted. A few, like Bella Swan, couldn't look at the couple at all. Honestly, though, it didn't really matter. The wizard was happy regardless of the arrows shot towards him. He had spent so much time over the past twenty-some months hiding who he truly was, that it was a great relief to get to be a little bit more himself in public. It was one less thing he had to hide from the world.

Finals week ended soon enough and the weekend arrived. It wasn't just any weekend, however. It was graduation weekend. Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett were all seniors that year. It was by no means the first time any of them had graduated from high school, but it was the first time that any of them had graduated from Forks High School.

Esme was strangely sentimental about the whole thing. She acted like her children really were growing up and getting ready to leave home. True, it was common for Emmett and Rosalie to live apart from the rest of the coven for a period of time after graduation, but such separations were fleeting.

The graduation ceremony was the first Harry had ever attended. The wondered, as he watched the principal make his opening remarks, whether Hogwarts had a graduation ceremony. It was odd, he realized, that he'd never thought of it before. He remembered the headmaster awarding the house cup at the end of each year, but never once did he hear a word about a graduation ceremony. The only reference he could recall to the seventh year of Hogwarts was the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests.

Harry was a bit surprised at the amount of attempted pomp that was involved in the whole affair. The graduating students had been arranged in seats in the front of the room while a succession of students and instructors made fairly generic speeches about the future. After the speeches were finished, the students were paraded in front of the audience to accept their diplomas one at a time. Although the principal had given a stern warning about withholding cheers until after everyone had received their diplomas, no one really obeyed. Harry and the non-graduating Cullens all stoop up to shout their congratulations when Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie crossed the stage.

Whatever sense of decorum the faculty had wanted to maintain during the ceremony was lost when a trio of seniors streaked across the stage totally naked. Edward, ever the chivalrous gentleman, took the opportunity to cover Harry's eyes before he saw anything worth seeing. Not that Harry cared, there was only one person he was interested in seeing nude.

After the ceremony, Harry accompanied the Cullen family back to their home. Although no formal graduation party had been arranged—the whole affair was, after all, old hat to all three graduates—the family was meeting back at the house in order to prepare for the trips that four of the children were going away on.

Emmett and Rosalie were leaving for Africa. Emmett was quite keen on getting the opportunity to try and run down a cheetah and Rosalie wanted a bit of time alone with her husband. They both promised to return by mid-July so that they could be on hand for the final preparations for the wedding.

Alice and Jasper were leaving on a far shorter trip. The pair was just going off on a nice, long hunting expedition to Canada. Alice refused to leave for anything longer than a week because she was desperate to continue making plans for the wedding. Although Harry had pointed out that she could take a cell phone with her and make the plans long distance, the perky vampire had argued back that it just wasn't the same.

The children were all quiet as they entered the house. It seemed to Harry that they were all politely indulging Esme as he fussed and carried on about how proud she was of the three graduates. It was a testament to how deeply Esme carried for her adoptive children that she took such great joy in their accomplishments, even if it was something they had done several times before and would continue to do countless times more in the future.

Once inside, Harry bounded up the stairs to Edward's room to retrieve the packages he had stored there earlier. The action had not gone unnoticed and he found that the entire family was staring at him when he came back down the stairs.

"What?" he asked.

"You bought presents?" Emmett said in a disbelieving manner.

"Well, of course. You graduated high school," Harry replied.

There were light chuckles all around at the human's statement.

"We don't really exchange gifts for this sort of thing anymore. Kinda like birthdays," Edward explained gently.

"I know," the wizard said. It was true. In the entire time Harry had known the family, there had been very few celebrations of this nature. According to Edward, the family hadn't celebrated a birthday for decades. Even Christmas was celebrated only once every few years. "But this is the first time I've seen you graduate, so I thought I'd get you something just the same," he said to the three graduates and he handed each of them a package wrapped in festive paper.

Emmett opened his gift first. It wasn't anything fantastic, just a signed football from some athlete that Harry vaguely remembered the vampire having mentioned on several previous occasions. The dark-haired vampire grinned broadly at the gift and thanked Harry before joking to Edward that that the human was paying more attention to his sports than Edward's music.

Rosalie opened her gift next. Again, it was nothing remarkable, in Harry's opinion. Just an antique locket that Harry had seen in a shop window in Port Angeles. The gold pendant was small and tasteful. Harry had verified before he purchased it that the locket was crafted in the 1920s and had been considered quite fashionable at the time. Given that Rosalie had been turned into a vampire in the early 1930s, he hoped that she would find the piece of jewelry pleasing. He was certain that she did when she gave him an uncharacteristically warm smile of thanks for the locket.

Jasper, always the most subdued, was the last to open his present. It would figure that the present that Harry was most nervous about was the last one to be opened.

The empathic vampire was very careful and deliberate as he removed the wrapping paper. Emmett joked that Jasper must have been intending to save the paper for reuse later. It practically killed Harry to wait for the vampire's reaction. Once the vampire had the paper removed, he spent the better part of a minute staring at the framed picture without any reaction. The lack of reaction made Harry terribly worried that his present had been a bad idea.

Finally, the vampire spoke in a very soft voice. "H-How did you do this?"

"What is it?" Carlisle questioned.

"It's me," Jasper said. "Before I was turned."

The members of the coven crowded around to look over Jasper's shoulder at the picture. Sure enough, it was an extremely old photograph of Jasper Whitlock. He looked very different in the picture because it was taken before his transformation into a vampire, but the tall blond was still easily identifiable as he leaned against the porch of an old southern home.

"Leah helped me to contact a genealogy service in Portland. They were able to track down the Whitlock family's history. Some of your cousins' descendants were alive up until about 25 years ago. An antique store in Mobile, Alabama bought most of the Civil War era family heirlooms from an estate auction. The store didn't keep good records, so I didn't know what belonged to your family and what didn't, but they were kind enough to e-mail scans of some pictures to Leah.

"That was one of the pictures they sent. You've changed a lot by becoming a vampire, but I still recognized you. So I sent them a check and they sent me the photo." Harry was silent after that.

The dark-haired boy was about to ask Jasper if he liked the present when, to the shock and amazement of everyone present, the empath engulfed the human in hug. The action caught Harry so off guard that it took his brain several moments to catch up and allow him to give the vampire a hug in return.

Jasper had always been very careful around Harry. He was the last of the Cullen family to embrace their restrictive diet and had the least amount of self-control around humans. His weakness for the scent of human blood was well demonstrated by his attack on Harry the first Christmas the wizard spent with the Cullens. Although the two had grown closer in recent months, the hug was the first real physical contact that they had shared.

"Thank you, Harry," the vampire said earnestly before releasing the human.

"You're welcome, Jasper." The dark-haired boy managed to keep his voice calm, but inside he was ecstatic that the vampire liked his gift.

The following few minutes were filled with goodbyes. The experience was one of the times that really got Harry thinking about the eternity that stretched out before him. To a vampire that could conceivable live forever, a separation of weeks or even a few months was nothing. That was how the Cullens could say goodbye to one another as simply as a parent could allow a child to run a quick errand to the market.

Soon enough, the four vampires had departed leaving Esme, Carlisle, Edward, and Harry behind. Carlisle and Esme both went upstairs a few minutes later to work in their respective offices; Carlisle to read medical journals and Esme to review some engineer's reports on her latest architectural designs. Harry seated himself on the couch in front of the television.

"So, what would you like to do for the rest of the day?" he asked his fiancé.

Edward stretched himself out on the couch and placed his head in Harry's lap. "Whatever you want to do."

"That's helpful," the human laughed as he began to run his fingers through Edward's bronze hair.

"You could tell me why you got Jasper that present," Edward suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"You went through a great deal of trouble to get that picture for him. I can't remember anything that's left him so . . . so stunned. Buying him just about any new book would have been sufficient."

Harry smiled down at his love's face. "I'm glad he liked the picture. And making him happy is reason enough."

The human's avoidance of actually answering Edward's question didn't go unnoticed. "You didn't just make him happy. You stopped him dead in his tracks. It was an amazing gesture." Edward paused for a few moments before continuing. "C'mon, you know our rule: no secrets."

"No secrets," Harry echoed. "I'm about to become a part of this family and I want Jasper and Rosalie to like me."

"They like you," Edward protested quickly. "Everyone adores you."

"Maybe I didn't word that just right. They do like me, but I want them to be more comfortable around me. That was the first time Jasper has ever had any meaningful physical contact with me."

"Meaningful physical contact?" the vampire questioned with a playful smile. "Should I be getting jealous?"

"I'm being serious, Edward. It is one thing to accept me as your boyfriend. It is something entirely different to accept me as your husband. As someone that is about to become a permanent fixture in a family of people that has been together for decades."

Edward leaned up and kissed Harry. "They do accept you as my other half. There are just some things that will be easier after you become a vampire. They won't have to worry about maintaining their careful control. They won't have to worry about hurting you."

Harry smiled down as his immortal and gave him a kiss in return for the one he'd just received. "Then it is still important for me that they know that I already see them as my siblings. That they are my family and that I love each and every one of them."

"Trust me," Edward said, "they know. And if they know, I know," he said as he tapped the side of his head.


	29. Chapter 29

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 29: Alpha Fight**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Twenty-Eight – Alpha Fight**

Harry Potter loved bacon. It was, in his opinion, one of the world's most perfect foods. Depending on how it was prepared, it could either crispy or chewy; it always had a wonderful salty taste; the entire house smelled fantastic after cooking it; and the grease byproduct of the cooking was perfect for frying chicken in.

As he finished frying a handful of strips of bacon, the wizard wondered if he'd miss bacon after he was turned into a vampire. Edward had described human food as being 'as appealing as dirt' on many occasions, so surely he wouldn't crave the taste. But would he remember it? Would he think back to his times as a human and miss the satisfying crunch of a BLT?

The boy had no sooner taken the strips of bacon out of the frying pan and placed them on a plate covered in paper towels when the doorbell rang. It was a bit odd; he wasn't expecting any visitors. Although Jasper and Alice had returned from Canada almost two weeks before, they had already left on another hunting trip with the rest of the family—minus Emmett and Rosalie, who were, of course, still in Africa.

Harry also hadn't anticipated a visit from any of his shapeshifter friends. Jacob Black had told Harry just the previous day that he and his pack would be doing some pack-related things that evening. The alpha was vague on the details, but he made it clear that it was a wolf-only event and that Harry wasn't invited. It came as a surprise, therefore, when the wizard found Leah Clearwater standing outside his front door.

"Why does your house smell like bacon?" she asked rather than greeting her friend.

"Because I just cooked some bacon," Harry replied in a way that was meant to make Leah feel a bit silly for even asking her question.

"Yeah, I figured that. But why are you cooking bacon at 8:30 at night? Don't tell me you got your days and nights screwed up because of all the time you've been spending with your vampires lately."

Harry stepped aside to allow Leah into his house. "I decided to do BLTs for a late dinner."

"But you don't really like lettuce and you do your best to avoid tomato unless it is ketchup or pasta sauce form."

"I'm holding the lettuce and tomato," the wizard replied as he followed Leah into the kitchen.

"Doesn't that mean you're just having bacon sandwiches?"

"Ye- Why are you here?" Harry broke his answer off midstream to ask the question. He'd finally tired of the bacon discussion, as amazing as that was.

"Jeez, you really know how to make a girl feel wanted."

"Sorry," he apologized as he shook his head. "Jacob was all secretive about the big mysterious pack something-or-other you're supposed to be doing tonight."

"Yeah," Leah started as she broke a piece off the end of one of the strips of bacon and popped it in her mouth. "About that . . . Jacob and Sam are going to try and kill each other."

Despite the calm way in which Leah made the statement, Harry began to panic.

"What?" the dark-haired boy cried. "They're going to try and kill each other?"

"Yup," Leah said, still acting calm and collected. "Well, maybe not kill each other. Seriously harm. Maim, even."

"Why?"

The female shapeshifter brushed a long strand of dark hair out of her face before explaining the situation to her friend. "It's Sam's big idea for putting the packs back together. He challenged Jacob to combat. If Sam wins, Jacob has to recognize Sam as the new, rightful alpha of both packs. If Jacob wins, well, you get the idea. One way or another, there is only going to be one pack after tonight."

"Sam's really that pissed about me becoming a vampire?"

"Oh, sweetie, this is way beyond you now. Don't get me wrong, Sam hates the idea of you or anyone else becoming a vampire. And the first thing he'll do if he wins tonight will be to use an injunction so that the entire pack will have to go after you and the Cullens if the treaty is breached. But this is a good, old-fashioned pissing contest."

"I'm getting sick of all the 'pissing' references," Harry grumbled.

The female shapeshifter ignored Harry's comment. "Sam was never supposed to be the alpha; it was always meant to be Jake. But Jake let Sam hold the reins long enough that he doesn't want to give 'em up. Sam wants to be top dog again."

"How do we stop it?" the wizard asked after a moment of reflecting on what his friend had said.

"We don't," Leah replied.

"What do you mean, 'we don't'?"

"Which word didn't you understand?"

"You know what I mean, Leah," Harry said, more than a little bit of irritation lining his voice. "Jacob made sure I didn't know this was going on. There's no way you'd have come here and told me that it is happening unless there was something I could do about it."

"That's where you are wrong, vamp-boy. Jacob sent me here to make sure you don't get curious and make a surprise trip to the Rez."

"Then why tell me what's going on? So I can spend the whole night worrying if he's okay?" Harry demanded.

"No. I just didn't feel like be a liar like Jake."

"Jacob didn't lie. Not technically. He said that there was a pack thing I couldn't be around for." The wizard heaved a big sigh as he leaned against the kitchen countertop. He absently picked up a piece of bacon and began to chew on the end. "There's got to be something we can do. Make Sam see reason."

"Sam's way past the 'seeing reason' stage of this whole thing," Leah replied bitterly.

"I want to go. Show Jacob I support him."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Leah protested.

"Why not?" Harry questioned. "I haven't broken the treaty, so Sam's pack can't do anything. As long as I don't get between the two of them while they fight, I should be okay, right?"

The shapeshifter hesitated for a minute before answering. "Yes . . . but Jacob doesn't want you to come. He doesn't even want you to know it's going on."

"If there is one thing I've learned over the past year, Leah, it's that sometimes you need your friends to be by your side. Even when they can't do anything but lend you a little moral support."

After exhaling an exaggerated huff, Leah replied, "I don't suppose there is anything I can do to stop you, short of causing you bodily harm."

"Nope," Harry replied with a cheeky grin.

A minute later, the pair was racing away from the wizard's house and towards the showdown. Harry didn't ride on Leah's back to La Push; instead, she drove him in her truck. They decided that if the fight had already gotten under way, that it would be best for Jacob to not have his mind suddenly flooded with Leah's thoughts about Harry.

The location of the duel didn't surprise Harry at all: it was at the cliffs of First Beach. They were the same cliffs that the boy could remember watching Jake cliff-dive off of just under a year before. What did surprise Harry was the fact that the wolves had managed to somehow clear the cliffs of their usual summer assortment of teenagers.

Two large bonfires had been set up near the cliffs. Near one bonfire was a group of six werewolves while the other was surrounded by a group of half as many. The larger group was obviously Sam Uley's pack. The large wolf at the front of the group was Sam; the two smallest at the rear were likely Colin and Brady; and the three in the middle were Jared, Embry, and Paul. The three wolves near the other fire were Seth, Quil, and Jacob.

As Harry looked at the wolves of Sam's pack, he could tell that there was something off. Several of the wolves seemed to be hunched over awkwardly, almost as if they were in pain. Even Paul, who always looked so strong and stoic, looked like he was suffering. The boy wondered if the conflict was really having such a toll on the subordinate wolves.

Billy Black was sitting in his wheelchair a fair distance to the side away from the cliffs. He shot Leah a look of disapproval when she and Harry arrived. The heightened senses of the wolves would ensure that they knew of Harry and Leah's arrival, but they didn't show any outward sign of it.

After walking her charge over to Billy Black's side, Leah moved behind the two 'civilians,' disrobed, transformed into her wolf form, and then went to join her pack. Harry didn't like being alone around Billy Black anymore. He liked the old man, but things were tense and uncomfortable between them ever since the breaking of the old pack. The wizard knew that the old man held him responsible for the trouble.

"When do they start?" Harry asked after what must have been twenty minutes of silence.

"Not until after the sun's completely down. They don't want to do this kind of ugly business in the day," came the man's gruff reply. "Why are you here?"

The question stung like an accusation. "Because Jacob's my friend. I want him to know that I support him."

"You support him," the man said with a disgusted huff. "You're the cause of all this."

"I'm the catalyst," Harry said. It was the same thing his friends had told him several weeks prior. "Sam used his power as alpha to stop his pack from voicing any opposition to his ideas. He was suppressing free speech."

"He was maintaining order. A good alpha has to be able to make the hard choices," Billy argued back quietly. "Jacob's a good boy, but he lets his heart decide things his head should. He put his friendship with you above his duty to enforce the law. No vampire of the Cullen clan shall bite a human. It's the law. You intend on helping the bloodsuckers break the law. You aren't dying anymore. There is no grey area here. There is a right and there is a wrong and what you plan is wrong."

"And is that what you're going to say to Jacob when he wins. And he _is_ going to win," Harry said confidently. He wasn't whispering this time; he wanted everyone to know that he had faith in his friend.

"Absolutely. If he wins, he'll still need to grow up."

Harry shook his head slightly as he watched the last little bit of sun set on the horizon. Billy was going to destroy his relationship with his son, Harry realized. The boy didn't know which was worse: the thought that the old man might not realize that he was doing it or the thought that he knew exactly what he was doing.

Even at the distance he was standing away from the werewolves, Harry could see the way Jacob and Sam tensed as darkness settled around them. The wizard knew it was time.

Sam made the first move. The black wolf charged directly at Jacob and made for the russet-colored wolf's neck with his jaws. Although Jacob had grown to be a few inches taller than Sam, he lacked the strength to simply bat the darker wolf away as he could Paul. As a result, Jacob was knocked onto his back near the bonfire. Sam was on top of Jacob, still trying to get at the younger wolf's neck.

Both of Jacob's front legs were extended and pushing against Sam's upper body to keep him at bay. Sam couldn't reach Jake's neck, but did manage to latch onto a mouthful of long, rusty fur. With a hard jerk, Sam ripped the hair out and elicited a high pitched sound from Jacob.

In a sudden fury, Jacob managed to roll over so that he was on top of Sam. His dominance didn't last long, however, as Sam kept the momentum going and caused the pair to continue to roll. Jacob's back hit the edge of the bonfire first, but the rolling motion soon brought Sam into the fire as well.

Both wolves scrambled to get out of the fire's edge. They ended up on opposite sides of the large bonfire. Slowly, the pair began to copy one another's movements around the fire. When one wolf moved to his left, the other moved to his own left so that the fire was kept squarely between them. The repetitive motions continued for several long moments; long enough for Harry to spare a glance at the other wolves.

All of the spectator wolves seemed extremely tense. It was when Harry looked over at the wolves in Sam's pack and saw the mixed feeling in their eyes that he was hit with a sudden realization: the pack members looked pained because they were, in fact, in pain.

"Sam ordered his own pack to fight with him so that he could get ready for this, didn't he?" Harry asked Billy in low and dangerous voice.

"He needed practice," was all Billy would say in response.

"He hurt his own pack." Harry didn't need to wonder if Jacob knew what Sam had done. If Harry had been able to pick up on the strain the members of Sam's pack were under, there was no way that the true alpha would have missed the signs.

Jacob and Sam continued to circle around the fire for several moments before Jacob went on the offensive. He went over the fire in one, mighty leap. Harry had expected his friend to jump at Sam and try to grapple with him, but he didn't. Jacob jumped over Sam and, in one quick motion, pivoted around then jumped at him from behind.

Sam saw that Jacob was trying to get behind him and easily turned around so that he could fight his opponent head-on. What he did not realize, however, was that that was exactly what Jacob had expected him to do. When Jacob impacted with Sam, he pushed the older wolf back into the bonfire. Unlike the previous time, however, Sam was pushed directly into the heart of the fire rather than its outer edge.

In a moment of pain and panic, Sam made a rushed and haphazard attempt to get out of the fire. In his carelessness, he didn't even make an attempt at defending against Jacob's next attack. The russet wolf used his right front paw to land a hard hit against the side of Sam's head as he came out of the fire. The impact was so strong that Harry could hear the crack from over a dozen yards away.

The hit sent Sam down to the ground. Before the downed alpha could recover, Jacob sank his teeth into his neck.

For one terrible moment, Harry was certain that Jacob was going to kill Sam by tearing out the older wolf's throat. The wizard couldn't look. As he stood with his eyes clinched shut, he waited for some sound or indication of the outcome. None came. After a moment, he reopened his eyes to look. Jacob and Sam were holding the same position: Sam on the ground with Jacob's teeth in his throat.

Harry knew what was going on. Jacob was waiting for Sam to yield. It took a short while, but Sam apparently surrendered after a few moments. The only sign that the fight had ended was Jacob releasing Sam from his jaw and moving to stand at the exact center of the two bonfires.

Jacob looked from one group of wolves to the other before unleashing a loud howl into the night air. Leah, Seth, and Quil added their howl's to Jacob's a moment later and, another moment after that, the wolves of Sam's pack joined in. Sam eventually pulled himself off of the ground and joined in as well, but it was clear that he was reluctant to do so.

Harry couldn't help himself. He cupped his hands on either side of his mouth and added his best imitation wolf howl to the cacophony.

The fight was over and the pack was whole once more. Jacob Black was the sole alpha of La Push. As he was always meant to be.

**A/N: **Yes, the title is a really bad reference to the old comic book series 'Alpha Flight.'


	30. Chapter 30

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 30: The Birthday Parties**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Twenty-Nine – The Birthday Parties**

Harry Potter awoke on the morning of his seventeenth birthday to the relaxing feeling of the sunlight pouring through the windows onto his face. Slowly, he cracked his eyes open to greet the day. Rather than seeing his empty bedroom, he saw Emmett, Alice, Quil, Seth, and Jacob all standing around his bed.

"Happy birthday!" the five intruders shouted as soon as the boy saw them.

Harry let out a startled yelp before falling off to the side of his bed. He landed in a heap on the floor as the group began to sing him the 'Happy Birthday Song.'

For several long moments after the group finished singing, Harry simply sat on the floor contemplating the best means of utterly destroying the five.

"I think we broke him," Emmett Cullen said after almost a full minute had passed.

"When I become a vampire, I am going to harm you in ways you can't imagine being harmed," the human gritted out from his place on the floor.

With the exception of Seth Clearwater, the assembled group of well-wishers broke into riotous laughter at that.

"You planning on spending your whole birthday on the floor?" Alice asked in her usual upbeat manner.

"I'm afraid it will take me another minute or two before I can stand up in the presence of a lady," Harry replied delicately.

It took Alice a moment to realize Harry's meaning. Emmett, of course, picked up on the meaning right away and decided to exploit the situation for his own amusement.

"Woke up all hot and bothered, did ya? Dreaming about your honeymoon?" Emmett asked with the suggestive wagging of the eyebrows that accompanied most of his jokes of a sexual nature. The vampire was joined in laughing at his joke by Jake and Quil.

Harry sputtered for a few seconds before he was able to respond to Emmett properly. "Get out of here you bloodsucking jackass!"

The entire group laughed at both the wizard's demand and his predicament before slowly filing out his bedroom. Harry took his sweet time getting ready for the day and so didn't join his friends downstairs until almost a full hour later. Although the vampires and the shapeshifters—so long as they transformed regularly—had nothing but time, everyone looked rather annoyed when Harry came trotting down the stairs. Their scowls gave Harry a ridiculous sense of accomplishment.

"So, what? You all weren't able to convince anyone else to join in on your wake up routine?"

"Yup," the female vampire replied with a cute tilt of her head and a smile that forced her eyes almost completely closed. "Though we had to keep clear of Edward so that he wouldn't ruin it."

"Not that that was hard, exactly. Edward's been away seeing to the last-minute details of your birthday present," Emmett added.

Harry couldn't stop the broad grin from forming on his face. "So you know what it is?"

"We're not telling," Alice replied in a sing-song voice.

"Drat," the wizard said with a melodramatic shaking of his fist. "I'll be forced to rely on my secret weapon to find out what he got me."

"Just wait for it?" Jacob Black asked.

"Yes," Harry answered with a firm nod of his head. "It is a plot so devious that no one will see it coming."

"Well, you'll be waiting for late tonight at the least," Quil said. "You're werewolf property for the day."

The wake-up call was evidently the limit on how far any of the members of either the pack or the coven were willing to work with one another. The Cullen family wanted to hold Harry's birthday at their house, but the pack wasn't willing go marching into what still felt like enemy territory. The pack wanted to host the party at First Beach, but the treaty would have banned the Cullens from attending. The compromise was to have two parties: a daytime party at the beach and a nighttime party at the Cullen house.

The party on the Rez was everything Harry could have wanted in a beach party. The group cooked hotdogs and marshmallows on skewers over a campfire, the sunshine helped make sure that the usual cold breeze coming off of the Pacific was nice and mild, and—most importantly—no one was fighting for a change.

Things in the pack had been pretty tense for a while after it was restored and Jacob became the sole alpha. While most of the wolves welcomed the reunification, Paul and Sam were both extremely irritable. On more than one occasion, Harry was certain that the two were going to go rouge and abandon La Push all together. Thankful, everything was much calmer now. Looking at the way Embry and Quil were joking around with one another, an outsider wouldn't be able to tell that their friendship had almost been totally destroyed a few weeks earlier.

Both Paul and Sam attended the birthday celebration and they weren't openly hostile with Harry, but neither one seemed very sincere when wishing him well. At least the lack of open hostility was progress.

After opening his presents, most of which would either rot Harry's brain or his teeth, he set out on a long walk with Jacob.

"Are you happy?" the alpha asked his friend once they were out of earshot from the other attendees.

"You know, I really am," Harry answered sincerely.

"That's good. Because you can still back out of this whole thing if you want to." Jacob sounded very hopeful at that prospect.

"I know this is hard on you, Jake. I'm sorry for that. But my mind's made up. I love Edward and I'm going to spend forever with him."

"Sounds boring to me," the werewolf huffed. "All eternity with one person."

Harry couldn't help but laugh at Jacob's statement. "Says the wolf. Doesn't your kind mate for life?"

"My kind imprints. Besides, even that's different. Unless there is an immediate danger, we voluntarily stop changing once the person we imprint on reaches the same age as us."

Harry took Jacob's statement to the next logical step. "You become mortal so that you can spend your life with the one you love. You don't want to watch your 'one and only' grow old, die, and leave you alone. Right?"

"Right," Jacob replied uncertainly as he tried to figure out where Harry was going with this.

"Don't you see that that is basically how my relationship with Edward is going?"

"Huh?" the dumbfounded wolf asked.

"Edward is going to live forever. I'm becoming immortal so that he doesn't have to see me grow old and die. So that he doesn't have to mourn my death."

Jacob was silent for a bit after that. "I guess you have a point. I still wish that it had been someone else."

"Like Seth," Harry said quietly.

Jacob visibly jerked when Harry mentioned of his young packmate.

"I have eyes, Jake. I had some suspicion of how he felt about me before I accepted Edward's proposal. Seth's reaction just filled in the few blank places. I can also tell that you'd much prefer I was with a member of your pack rather than a member of the coven."

"So you've been playing dumb?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah, I have. I didn't want to hurt Seth."

"Then why are you telling me this? You know he'll find out if I ever think about it when were both wolves."

"Because," Harry said with a weary shake of his head, "I don't want him to do something stupid at the wedding. He's thinking about objecting. Or confessing his feelings to me before the wedding actually starts. I want him to know the truth, but I haven't figured out how to broach the subject with him without making him feel . . ."

"Stupid," Jacob offered.

"Not stupid. I don't want him to have to go through that whole uncomfortable conversation with me. He'll know the truth without the messy drama. I love Seth like a brother, just like I do most of the pack. But that is as far as my feelings for him go. And, truth be told, I think it would be kinda selfish of him to want me to pick him over Edward."

"Selfish?" Jacob asked almost indignantly.

"Seth didn't imprint on me. If I were with him, there would always be a chance that one day he'd see someone walking down the street and then, just like that, it'd all be over. It would be Sam, Leah, and Emily all over again. Even if I wanted to be with Seth—which I don't—I wouldn't allow myself to be put in that position."

Jacob thought about Harry's word's for a bit. "You have a point," he reluctantly conceded. "With all of the cool things that go along with being a werewolf, I sometimes forget about all the shitty parts. Like the fact that we have to either wait around and deny ourselves what we want that is right in front of us or else we go for it and risk causing a lot of hurt."

Harry took a deep breath in through his nose and then let it out through his mouth. "Moral of the story: I'm happy. I've made my decision, and nothing is going to change it. So let's talk about something nicer. Like why are Colin and Brady so afraid of me?"

Jacob unleashed a barking laugh at Harry's question.

All too soon, it was time for Harry to leave La Push and attend his second birthday party. Alice picked Harry up in her Porsche at the border and drove him to her family home. She very much wanted the opportunity to see his face when he saw everything she had done to prepare for his birthday. Although Rosalie had had a significant hand in the preparations, she allowed her sister to have her moment.

Alice wasn't disappointed in Harry's reaction in the least; the boy was in total awe.

The path to the Cullen house, which was usually almost impossible for people who didn't know what they were looking for to find, was lined with dozens of hanging lanterns. The house itself was lit up like a Christmas tree with strands of lights and more lanterns hanging about. The most drastic change, however, was the interior: Alice had moved all of the furniture out of the spacious living room and turned the area into something that looked like a dance club. There was a large buffet of food and drinks off to one side, neon lights, and even a disco ball. Emmett was acting a disc jockey.

"Any requests?" the vampire asked as Harry was escorted inside by Alice.

"I don't think anyone would be interested in dancing to Harry's favorite song," Rosalie said as she took hold of the boy's free arm. Her belief was accurate: the soft piano music that Edward composed for Harry would be ill-suited to the way most of the guests were dancing.

As the two female vampires led Harry through the room, the boy noticed that there were far more people there than he anticipated. The room was filled with at least thirty students from Forks High School and a substantial number of their parents and faculty members.

Seeing the confusion in Harry's eyes, Alice decided to answer his unasked question. "Edward invited everyone who has been thinking nice things about your relationship. His way of proving to you that there really are people out there who are accepting of you," she whispered quietly in his ear.

Harry took that opportunity to gently remove his arms from Alice and Rosalie's hold and pull both vampires into a hug. "Thank you both so much for this!" he shouted to them over the music, despite the fact that his mouth was only a few inches from their ears. "It's all so wonderful!"

Alice was beaming at Harry when she was released. Rosalie looked a tad uncomfortable. Fortunately, she wasn't left to suffer for long because Jasper appeared from seemingly nowhere and began to push Harry up the stairs. "There's a change of clothes up in Edward's room for you," he explained as the pair climbed their way to the third story of the house.

"Isn't what I'm wearing fine?" Harry asked.

"It smells like dog," the empathic vampire replied. Jasper practically shoved Harry into Edward's bedroom before pulling the door shut on his way back downstairs.

"Hello, Edward," Harry said as he crossed the room to join his fiancé who was waiting for him. Edward was standing in the middle of the room with a coy smile playing on his lips. "Glad to see you made it back in time for the party."

"Happy birthday, Harry," the vampire said. "I asked Jasper to get you up here so that I could give you your birthday present."

Harry grinned and started to look around the room trying to figure out where his present was.

"Close your eyes and open your hand out in front of you," Edward said.

Harry obeyed. The next moment, he felt something cold a metal being placed in his hand. He opened his eyes and found that Edward had given him a key.

"A key?" Harry asked. "Is this one of those symbolic things? Like, you've given me the key to your heart?"

"You've had the key to my heart for quite some time. This is a key to a house."

"I hate to break it to you, Edward, but Esme gave me a copy of the house key months ago."

"Esme gave you a copy of the key to _this_ house months ago," Edward said. "This is a key to _our_ house."

"'Our house'?" Harry parroted.

Edward smiled and then reached behind his leather couch and presented Harry with a set of blueprints. "Yes, our house. Construction began back before Christmas. Back when my siblings and I planned on kidnapping you and turning you into a vampire to save your life, I purchased some property in Alaska near where our sister coven resides. It's remote and is a very good place for a newborn vampire who doesn't want to accidentally kill a human or two.

"I found this set of old blueprints from a project of Esme's that never came into being. She spent so much work into them. They're plans for a perfect house for a couple of newlyweds. I hired a contractor and had the house started. After your cancer went into remission, I saw no need to halt the project. I figured that the house could still be a nice place for us to vacation. Then, after we became engaged, I thought that it might make a wonderful home for us after we're married."

Edward was about to say more, but found himself with an arm and a mouth full of wizard before he could continue. The kiss lasted for a good long while before Harry backed off.

"Thank you," he said in a soft and almost urgent voice. "Thank you so very much. I can't wait to see it."

"I have pictures," Edward said.

At that moment, however, Harry didn't give a damn about the pictures. He just wanted to spend some time with his fiancé.


	31. Chapter 31

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 31: The Bachelor Party**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash. Minor mention of child abuse in this chapter.

**Chapter Thirty – The Bachelor Party**

The birthday party lasted into the hours in which no one was really sure whether it was technically late night or early morning. Either way, Harry was exhausted and didn't get out of bed until well after noon the next day. The wizard then spent most of the afternoon making sure he had everything in order for his impending extended absence.

Edward arrived shortly after five that evening. "And did you have a happy birthday?" the vampire asked as he walked into the living room where Harry was sealing an envelope with a check to the electric company inside.

"I had a very happy birthday," Harry answered as he fixed a stamp to the corner of the envelope. "And with this, I should have everything in order so that I can have a happy, worry-free honeymoon."

"Very nice."

"Speaking of our honeymoon, I don't suppose you'll tell me where we're going, will you?"

"You are so impatient these days. You're not happy unless you're asking people to spoil a surprise, are you?" Edward asked playfully.

"Maybe I've had enough surprises for one lifetime."

"One can never have too many surprises," the vampire replied.

"Tell that to someone who's been stuck by lightning," Harry quipped. "It just seems like everything has to be a surprise these days. Birthday presents, wedding presents, honeymoon destinations. Alice won't even tell me where my wedding is being held."

"That last one is your own fault. You gave her complete discretion over everything but the guest list and anything that will make you look girly. You could have retained veto power on everything, but you didn't."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Harry muttered as he stacked his bill payments together and sat them to the side. "So, what's the plan for your bachelor party again?"

"Just a hunting trip is all. Though I'm sure I'll have to endure a great deal of ribbing from Emmett about the honeymoon."

Harry reached out, took hold of Edward's hands, and pulled the vampire down to straddle his hips. "How do you feel about our honeymoon?"

"I'm still worried about your safety. I still don't think we should try anything until after you're turned."

"You want me to die a virgin, then?" Harry asked with mock hurt.

"I died a virgin," Edward replied.

"What happened to wanting me to have as many human experiences as possible before I'm turned?"

"I promised you we'd try, Harry," Edward said a bit forcefully. "But if things become too difficult. If I start to lose control . . ."

"I know," Harry said as he pulled Edward down into a brief kiss. "We do this safe or not at all."

"Wow, did I just walk in on condom talk?" came a new voice. Harry and Edward turned their heads to find that Edward's brothers, Emmett and Jasper, had let themselves into the house.

"You have horrible timing, you know," Harry said as Edward got up. "Come to take my man out for a night of debauchery?" he asked the two newcomers.

"If by 'debauchery,' you mean eating our fill on mountain lions, then yes. We have a long night of debauchery ahead of us," Jasper answered.

"At least you're taking him out for his favorite dish," the human said.

"And what about you, Harry? What do you have planned for your bachelor party?" the blond empath asked.

"Jacob, Quil, and Embry are coming over for a night of pizza and poker."

"No Seth?" Edward asked.

"No. He doesn't like the idea of me becoming a vampire. Or getting married, for that matter."

"Well," Emmett said as he clapped his hands together, "I can smell dog approaching, so I'm thinking it's time we cut out of here."

"You two go ahead to the car, I want one last moment with my fiancé before the wedding," Edward said. Once Jasper and Emmett exited the home through the front door, the bronze-haired immortal pulled Harry flush against his body. "You know, you could do something else for your party. I would have no objection to you doing something a bit more traditional."

"You want me to get a stripper?" Harry couldn't stop himself from laughing at the concept of Jacob, Quil, and Embry sitting uncomfortably while a young man stripped in front of Harry. It took the boy a moment to get his laughter under control. "I know you wouldn't object to it, but you wouldn't like it. And neither would I. You are only man in the world I want to see naked."

Edward chuckled a bit at Harry's statement. "I don't deserve you."

"I know. But you got me anyway," the human joked. "I guess this is it. I won't see you again for over 24 hours." He let out a sigh before continuing. "Who plans a wedding for ten o'clock at night, anyway?"

"A vampire. But if you would prefer, we could always skip the bachelor parties and elope."

"And then keep running in the desperate hope of escaping Alice's wrath. And Esme's wrath. And, well, you get the idea."

The vampire gave his fiancé one last lingering kiss before leaving for his hunting trip.

Only a few minutes passed between the vampires leaving and the wolves arriving. Based on Emmett's ability to smell the three shapeshifters, Harry was fairly confident that they were waiting down at the end of the block for the vampires to leave before showing up on Harry's doorstep.

"You ready to lose your nest egg, Mr. Cullen-to-be?" Jacob asked as walked through the front door carefully balancing a stack of pizzas.

"Brave words from a guy who once thought two-three-five-six-seven was a straight," Embry said as he, along with Quil, followed the alpha into the house. Everyone had a good laugh at Jacob's expense.

"You ready for your stag party?" Quil asked as he and Harry clapped hands.

"It's funny that you call it that. You know, my father was a stag."

The next several hours were filled with loud shouts, risqué jokes, and a copious amount of junk food. Harry was fairly certain that the wolves had eaten at least four whole pizzas. Each. He himself had barely managed five slices.

The party was a bittersweet experience for Harry. It was fun, but he couldn't help but recognize that it was the last time he'd do anything like it. After his wedding, he'd leave for his honeymoon. After the honeymoon, he'd make a short trip to Britain. After Britain, he would come back to Forks just long enough to tie up a few loose ends before being turned.

After he was turned into a vampire, he wouldn't eat human food anymore. He wouldn't be able to return to Forks or La Push. And although Jake and Leah had both promised to remain friends with him, they all knew that their friendship could never be quite as close at it was now.

It was close to midnight when Quil's face scrunched up like he smelled something awful. "One of your vampires is here," he announced.

Harry looked at Embry and Jacob for confirmation. The pair sniffed the air for a moment, frowned, and then nodded.

"I'll take care of it," Harry said as he rose from the kitchen table and tossed his cards down. "Deal me out for a couple of games."

The teen walked out of the front door and found Rosalie's red convertible in his driveway. The car wasn't running anymore and it was dark enough out that he couldn't even make out Rosalie's face. The boy walked over to the passenger side door and let himself in.

The female vampire was silent as Harry took a seat next to her in the car, but began to speak once the door was closed. "I'm sorry. I thought that perhaps your party would be over by now. It was not my intention to ruin your evening."

"It takes a hell of a lot more to ruin my evening than you parking your car in my driveway. Jacob's pride might be a little hurt when he sees your car parked to his, but I'm good."

"There was something I wanted to speak with you about before your wedding. Because you will be spending most of tomorrow getting ready, tonight seemed like the only time when we could talk."

"About what?" Harry asked.

"Please understand that I have no objection to you becoming my brother. And I believe that you and Edward are meant to be together, just as Emmett and I are meant to be together. What I am not sure of, however, is whether you understand what exactly you are giving up by becoming a vampire. You know, of course, the circumstances under which I became a vampire."

Harry knew the story very well. Rosalie had been engaged to a very wealthy man who, together with his friends, got drunk and then beat and sexually assaulted her one night. Her injuries would have been fatal had Carlisle Cullen not turned her into a vampire. Doctor Cullen's intent had been to create a female companion for Edward. That fact had long made Harry feel inadequate as Edward's boyfriend. How could plain-looking Harry Potter have caught Edward Cullen's eye where beautiful Rosalie had failed?

Rosalie, Harry knew, had taken the first opportunity to murder her former fiancé and his friends in revenge for their assault on her. That was why she was considered to have a record _almost_ as clean as Carlisle's; she'd never tasted human blood, but she had murdered humans.

"What you do not know, is how horribly I treated Carlisle for several years after I was turned. There was a time that I could honestly say that I hated him with all of my heart."

"Why?" Harry asked, his voice reduced to little more than a whisper by the concept of Rosalie hating the man who was now her father.

"I am a vampire, so I cannot have children," she said. "Even if I were capable of becoming pregnant, I could never be capable of caring for a mortal child properly. Children scrape their knees and get bloody noses. The risk that I would lose myself in the bloodlust and kill the child is far too great."

Harry had never seen Rosalie as forlorn as she did when she spoke about having a baby.

"I know that on an intellectual level, you understand that by becoming a vampire you will be giving up many things, like having children or a career. But I fear that you do not understand these things in you heart."

"I do," Harry replied firmly. "I understand what I'm getting myself into. I've thought about all of things that I'm going to sacrifice. When measured against my life with Edward, they're nothing . . . Besides," he added almost as an afterthought, "if Edward and I decide we want to raise a child, we'll find a way."

"The risk-" she started.

"Carlisle is capable of treating injured children without the least bit of temptation," the wizard interrupted.

"Carlisle is a special case. He has never been tempted by human blood the way other vampires are," Rosalie argued back.

"I have no doubt in my mind that age, experience, and love can help any vampire to gain the self-control necessary to resist his or her own child." The way Harry made the statement made it clear to Rosalie that she wasn't going to convince him of the danger.

"It is more than just the risk, Harry. How could a cold statue—a monster—ever comfort a crying babe?

"Do you know what my earliest memory is? I don't mean those nightmares about my mother's murder that the dementor's bring on, I mean my first real memory."

"No," Rosalie confessed a bit perplexed by the odd transition in the conversation.

"It is of my aunt burning my wrist with a hot spoon because I messed up when cooking something in the kitchen. Trust me when I tell you that when it comes to raising a child, she was a monster the likes of which I don't think you could ever become, Rosalie. A child would be lucky to have someone like you for a mother."

Harry didn't wait for Rosalie's reaction; he just left her alone in her care and rejoined his party.


	32. Chapter 32

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 32: The Wedding Party**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Thirty-One – The Wedding Party**

Harry was certain he was going to throw up. He wasn't nauseous the way he had been during chemotherapy; this was just nerves. In a few short hours, he was going to be married.

The implications of that thought were astounding. Of all the changes he'd gone through in the past two years, none had had as profound an effect as what he was about to do. He was about to make a promise to stay with Edward Cullen for all eternity; to make a commitment that would determine everything that followed.

As awesome and overwhelming that thought was, Harry was excited.

Harry spent a rare moment of solitude thinking about his future and all the things he'd left behind. Alice had been the boy's companion all day long. She'd handled every decision for him, from what to eat to when he needed to start getting ready for the big event. At just a few minutes past eight o'clock in the evening, she'd rushed him into Rosalie's massive bathroom to bathe and handle all of his human needs.

The boy allowed himself to sink beneath the warm water that filled the bathtub for a long moment. After relaxing at the bottom of the tub, the wizard slowly raised himself up and took a deep gasp of air. He was trying his best to calm himself down; he certainly didn't want Edward to hear his heart racing as though he was having a panic attack in the middle of the ceremony.

A few minutes later, the boy was clean and dry and standing in front of the bathroom mirror in nothing but a fluffy white robe. He looked at his reflection in the mirror and did a mental comparison to how he'd looked less than a year before. After the end of his chemotherapy, he'd returned to a healthy weight and managed to put on a modest amount of muscle for a teenage boy. His skin, though still far paler than it had been when he first arrived in Forks, had regained much of its color. The most striking change, of course, had been the return of his hair. Enough hair had grown in the past several months that Alice had to take the time to trim it earlier that day.

Harry ran his fingers through his short dark hair and smiled a bit. He'd hated being bald. Not because he didn't like the way he looked without hair, but because it had been an irrefutable sign of his illness. That was why he'd gone through such extraordinary lengths too ensure that no one, not even his closest friends, had seen him without a nightcap, hat, or wig on his head until his secret was out in the open. Just as the loss of his hair had been a sign of the disease, its return was a sign of the recovery.

The boy's hair wasn't such a remarkable change simply because it had returned. It was also remarkable because the hair that had regrown was very different from the hair that he had had before he'd gotten sick. Rather than being a mop of perpetually tangled black hair, it was now chocolate brown and flat as if somene had ironed it. Or at least it was flat when it was kept short. Before Alice had given him the trim earlier that day, the ends had pulled away from the side of Harry's head like wings mid-flap. There was a sharp pang in Harry's stomach when he realized that he was losing some of the few connections he had to his parents. He'd always had his father's hair and his mother's eyes. But now, he no longer had his father's hair. And he'd lose his mother's green eyes after he became a vampire.

The dark-haired boy was pulled from his thoughts by a knocking on the door.

"Harry, dear," Alice Cullen said impatiently through the door. "I don't hear you getting dressed."

A smile tugged at the human's lips at the vampire's words. He sometimes forgot how she and her family could hear every little detail of his movements. Even the gentle rustle of clothing wouldn't go unnoticed.

"I'm just about to," Harry replied back to his sister-in-law-to-be. Her supernatural hearing made yelling the statement wholly unnecessary.

The boy's movements for the next several minutes were slow and methodical. He wanted everything to be perfect. Besides, a last minute blunder like accidentally tearing a button off of his tuxedo would send Alice into a tizzy.

"I'm decent," Harry said after he pulled his pants on.

Alice opened the door a moment later. In the reflection in the mirror, Harry could see Rosalie, Esme, Leah, and Jacob pacing about the bedroom. The women were in dresses of silvers and grays while Jacob was in a black suit with a loose blue tie.

"Let me have a look at you," the pixie-like vampire said as she strolled up to her brother-in-law-to-be. "Well, at least you can dress yourself. For the most part," she joked as she began to style the boy's hair.

"I'm quite capable of dressing myself," Harry defended.

Alice styled the boy's hair—she parted the hair slightly off to the left of center in such a way that it totally obscured the scar on his forehead—and then began to put the finishing touches on the boy's outfit. Harry was wearing a very traditional black tuxedo with a gray vest and tie.

"How do I look?" the asked after he was fully dressed.

Alice took a minute to straighten Harry's jacket to her standards before answering. "Perfect."

Harry reached over to the counter and picked up his glasses and placed them on his face.

"You're not planning on wearing those, are you?" Alice asked.

"Just until it's time for the ceremony. I should be able to handle things from there just fine."

The female vampire escorted Harry out of the bathroom and into Rosalie's bedroom. Harry had no sooner crossed the threshold when the flash of camera went off. He looked up to see Esme with a camera in her hand snapping pictures as fast as possible.

"You'd think it was the only time they're going to go through this," Jacob muttered off to the side.

Leah smacked her alpha on the arm. "It's Harry's wedding, you idiot. Stop being an ass," she hissed. "And the first time is bound to be special, anyway." The shapeshifter turned to her human friend and gave him a beaming smile. "You look perfect, Harry."

"That seems to be the consensus," Rosalie said with a light smile.

"So, when do we go to the church?" Harry asked.

"Church?" Jacob asked in confusion. "I thought this was being held at-"

Jacob Black wasn't allowed to finish his sentence because all three vampire women shushed him simultaneously.

"He's trying to trick you into revealing where the wedding is being held," Alice said.

Harry couldn't help but join Leah in laughing at Jacob's expense. "Okay, so when do we leave?"

"As soon as you're ready," his vampiric wedding planner replied.

No sooner had Harry reached the bottom of the stairs with his entourage then his glasses were confiscated by Alice. He was then blindfolded and put in the back seat of Emmett Cullen's jeep. The drive to the secret destination of the ceremony took quite a while. Although his sense of time and space was distorted by his forced blindness, Harry guessed that it took about an hour to drive to the destination. The path was very bumpy and, on more than occasion, the boy asked to be allowed to remove his blindfold to avoid getting sick.

The jeep eventually came to a stop and Alice helped Harry out of the back seat.

"Can I finally take my blindfold off?"

Alice didn't answer for a moment but instead continued to lead Harry through the warm night air. Once she reached their destination, she removed the boy's blindfold and allowed him to put his glasses back on.

It took several seconds for Harry's eyes to adjust to the scene, but when he did, it took his breath away. He was standing a short distance from the almost perfectly circular clearing in the woods. It was Edward and Harry's favorite spot in the forest. It was also the place where Harry had sat waiting for Victoria several months before.

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of candles were carefully positioned around the clearing to give the area an almost otherworldly glow. In addition to the candles, there were a few small torches positioned at regular intervals to provide enough light for the ceremony. Around thirty chairs had been set up in the clearing for guests to sit in. The chairs were filled with various friends and acquaintances from around Forks. At the front of the group of spectators were a few empty seats for the Cullen family, Jacob, and Leah.

The large buffet table that had been used at Harry's birthday party was also present off to the far right of the clearing. Rather than being filled with various forms of junk food as it had been two nights before, it was now filled with delicate-looking hors d'oeuvres and a large, white wedding cake.

The scene was better than anything Harry could have hoped for. He tried to express his appreciation for Alice's hard work, but the words wouldn't come. The vampire just smiled a knowing smile at the wizard, gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and then left for her position in the front row. Rosalie soon followed after Alice. Esme gave Harry a kiss on his other cheek before going off into the woods.

Jacob and Leah took Harry and stood with him just outside of the back end of the circular clearing.

"You ready for this?" Leah asked him gently.

"Absolutely," he replied excitedly.

"You can still back out if you want. I'm pretty sure I can outrun all of the bloodsuckers in attendance," Jacob said with a nervous laugh.

Harry shot the La Push alpha a smirk. "Nice try, but I'm not changing my mind."

"Just thought I'd give you the option."

The trio stood in silence for several more minutes before Harry noticed Edward arrive. The bronze-haired vampire was wearing a dark suit with a tie that matched Harry's vest. Alice had evidently decided that if she couldn't get Harry to wear an all-white outfit to contrast with Edward's dark suit—Harry had vetoed the idea—she'd just have their clothes be of very different styles: Harry's tuxedo was traditional and spoke of old-world taste while Edward's suit was very sleek and modern. It was ironic considering that Edward was almost a century Harry's senior.

The pair of lovers stood with quiet smiles on their faces, each supported by two individuals who were preparing to see their loved ones enter a new stage in their lives. In the way that Harry stood with Jacob and Leah, Edward stood with Carlisle and Esme.

A soft music began to play and all of the guests stood up and looked back at where Harry and Edward were. It wasn't the traditional wedding march. The music was vaguely familiar and it took the boy a short while to recognize it. The music was the piece that Edward had composed for Harry back in December when they were both certain, yet unwilling to admit, that the wizard would die.

Jacob and Leah each took one of Harry's arms and led him into the clearing. Edward and his parents mirrored the action. The two soon-to-be-weds were led by their escorts behind the back row of guests. They met in the middle at the end of a long aisle that led through the center of the chairs. When the two groups met, the escorts released their hold on Edward and Harry and allowed the pair to take one another's hands.

Esme and Carlisle gave Harry warm and encouraging smiles before moving back around the right side of the guests to their seats at the front. Jacob took a moment to lean forward and whisper a quiet threat to Edward regarding Harry's safety and happiness before he and Leah went to their seats on the left. Harry and Edward were left alone at the back of the clearing.

"Fancy meeting you here, stranger," Harry whispered.

"I cleared my schedule for you," Edward replied just as softly.

The pair smiled at one another before they turned and walked slowly down the aisle towards the front of the clearing where a blond woman in white robes was standing. As Harry walked past his friends and acquaintances, he was able to pick out Chief Swan and his English teacher. Bella Swan was also present and blushing furiously. A group of vampires were sitting behind the Cullen family. Harry assumed that they were the Denali coven.

One person who was noticeably absent was Seth Clearwater. Harry wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

When the pair arrived in front to stand with the minister, everyone sat down in unison.

"Friends and family, we are gathered here this evening to celebrate and honor the love between these two young men," the minister began.

Harry tuned the woman out for the next couple of minutes as she spoke of love and commitment. He wasn't bored by any stretch of the imagination, he was just distracted by the intense and unblinking gaze that Edward was sending his direction. Any doubts or fears or nerves that Harry had had that day melted away as he looked into those familiar amber orbs.

When the time came for the vows, the minister turned the show over to the boys so that they could express their feelings to one another.

Edward spoke first. "I've spent my entire life waiting for something, but I never quite knew what it was. There was an empty place in my life. A void. I knew it was there, but I had no idea how to fill it. And then I met you and I realized what I was missing. Your love fit that empty space inside of me perfectly, and, for the first time, I realized how wonderful life could truly be.

"I lost you once, due to my own foolishness. And I promise you that I will never make such an awful mistake again. I promise you that I will spend every day from this one forward at your side. I will be your friend, your companion, and your lover through all the things life sends our direction. If you will have me, I will be you loving husband for all our lives."

The vampire's words left Harry a little bit choked up. With sudden horror, he realized that he couldn't remember the words he'd been practicing for weeks. He decided to go off-script and speak from his heart. "I've done a lot of reckless things in my life. I've broken rules and taken chances. Coming to Forks was a huge gamble on my part. I had to leave everyone and everything I'd ever known. It took a lot for me to be able to take a chance that big and, for the first couple of months here, I was too scared to take another. I was too scared to even talk to the people around me.

"Eventually, I plucked up the courage to take a gamble and say hello to this . . . bronze-haired boy that I sat near in a couple of my classes. And just like coming to Forks, that gamble paid off. I didn't just find the love of my life, I found someone who taught me a way to live and be happy in ways I had never dreamed I'd be able to. I love you, Edward Cullen. Being with you has taught me to savor the moments of my life. I'm asking you to let me return that favor. In front of our friends and family, I'm asking you to let me stay right here by your side forever."

After the pair finished their declarations, the minister smiled broadly at continued her part of the ceremony. "If there is anyone present who has any just cause why these two should not be joined, let him speak now or forever hold his peace."

Silence settled over the clearing.

"You may now exchange rings," the minister said next.

Edward pulled out a plain gold band and added it to the heirloom gold and diamond ring that was already on Harry's finger. Harry pulled out a titanium ring he had made for Edward and slipped it on the vampire's finger.

"What God has united, let no man tear asunder. You may now seal your commitment to one another with a kiss."

"I've been waiting all day to hear that," Edward said as he and Harry leaned into one another and shared a kiss that was both their last kiss as boyfriends and their first kiss as husbands.


	33. Chapter 33

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 33: Married**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Thirty-Two – Married**

The kiss between Edward and Harry lasted far longer than most wedding kisses. A few seconds in, Edward reached forward, grabbed hold of his new husband, and pulled him flush against his chest. The pair was oblivious to the guests until Emmett let lose a loud wolf whistle and Carlisle forced a polite cough.

Reluctantly, the pair released one another and turned to face the spectators. The group erupted into cheers and shouts of congratulations. Alice was the loudest in the crowd, though Jacob's shouts were by now means unexuberant.

The next several minutes were devoted to taking pictures. Various acquaintances took turns using the camera so that Esme could be in several of the shots. While the Cullens—a classification that now included Harry—and the two shapeshifting guests stood and posed for pictures, several of the other guests moved the chairs out of the way so that there was room to mingle and dance.

Although Harry was excited at the prospect of everyone mingling so that he would no longer be the center of attention, he knew that he'd have to wait. Even after the pictures were taken, there were still several formalities that had to be observed.

First, Harry and Edward had to stand near the buffet table to greet and make small talk with all of their guests. Almost everyone gave the duo a fairly generalized well-wishing: compliments on the ceremony, congratulations on the wedding, and best wishes for the future. There were only two unusual moments. The first was when Bella Swan greeted them. The girl was still blushing furiously. Although she cast admiring glances at Edward, she mostly ignored Harry. The second interesting moment was when Harry was introduced to the members of the Denali coven.

Only four of the five members of the Alaskan coven attended the wedding. Just like the Cullens, the Denali were all incredibly pale and impossibly attractive. The first two to go through the receiving line were Carmen and Eleazar, the mated leaders of the coven. Although Eleazar, whom Harry knew from Carlisle's stories was a truly ancient vampire, was a bit distant in his greeting, Carmen was very enthusiastic. They were followed by their fellow coven members, Tanya and Kate.

Tanya and Kate were sisters. Their third sister, Irina, didn't attend the wedding. Harry had been told beforehand not to expect her. She had, for a short time, been romantically linked with Laurent, the third member of James and Victoria's coven. Laurent was killed by Jacob and a few members of his pack when the vampire attacked Harry a few months after the Cullen family left Forks. Carlisle had later asked the Denali coven to come and help oppose Victoria, but his request was rebuffed. The Denali refused unless the Cullen coven agreed to help Irina and her sisters destroy Jacob's pack in revenge for Laurent's death. Although Carmen, Eleazar, Tanya, and Kate later came to regret the decision not to come to the Cullen coven's aid, Irina still held a grudge.

Harry was nervous about meeting Tanya. The female vampire had once openly pursued Edward. She was a legitimate romantic rival in Harry's eyes. In this regard she was most unlike Rosalie, who was intended to be Edward's mate but had no interest in him, and Bella Swan, who was either oblivious or uncaring of Edward's preferences. The wizard quickly realized that any fears he had were totally unfounded.

"Hello Harry," Tanya greeted warmly. "Congratulations on your marriage. I know you two will be very happy together." They made small talk for a minute before Tanya moved away to allow the next group of people to congratulate the happy couple. Before she walked away, however, she leaned in close and whispered to Harry, "I so look forward to getting the chance to chat with you. But there's no hurry. After all, we are going to have _eons_ to get to know one another, little brother. You'll just love Alaska."

Once everyone had had the opportunity to wish the couple well, the pair had to cut the cake. Despite Emmett's shouts for the pair to shove pieces of cake at one another and make a huge mess, both Edward and Harry were careful to feed one another small pieces of cake that easily fit into the mouth. The human did chuckle when Edward swallowed his piece of cake. Harry knew from prior experience that the act of vampire eating human food was similar to a human eating dirt. Edward put on a good show; he didn't let his disgust at having to take part in the tradition show.

Finally, the newlyweds had to share the first dance. Unlike the receiving line and the cutting of the cake, Harry didn't view this experience as a nuisance. He savored every second of the dance, from the moment he and Edward walked out into the center of the clearing until well after the majority of the other guests joined them.

Harry had never been too fond of dancing. The entire concept drudged up bad memories of his disastrous attempt to dance during the Yule Ball of his fourth year at Hogwarts. But this was a very different situation. He was dancing at his wedding and he loved it.

Harry switched between leading and following. Edward led the majority of time that they danced together, but Harry got to lead a few times. Having Edward lead much more sense to Harry because the vampire actually knew how to dance. The human also got to lead when he danced with Esme, Rosalie, Tanya, and Leah. He followed when he danced with his new brother, Jasper. Alice, much like Edward, insisted that they trade off on leading and following. Emmett and Jake, rather than dancing with Harry the way Jasper had, opted to dance near Harry during a fast-paced song.

The reception began to wind down in the earliest hours of August 3. It was shortly before three o'clock in the morning when Edward and Harry decided it was time to leave. Amidst the cheers of their friends and family, they began to drive away in the jeep. As the vehicle began to slowly drive away from the clearing, Harry was certain that he saw Seth standing in the darkness of the woods. The teen looked resigned.

The first stop after leaving the woods was the Cullen household. The stop lasted just long enough for Harry and Edward to change out of their wedding clothes and to pick up the luggage that they were taking with them on their honeymoon.

Once on the road again, Edward didn't drive as fast as he normally did; however, he did drive faster than the posted speed limit. He wanted to make sure that they reached the airport in Seattle in time to make it through security for their six o'clock flight, but he didn't feel the need to push the jeep to its limits. The pair chatted about the wedding throughout the drive. Neither was really interested in the conversation, but Harry needed something to talk about in order to say awake and Edward was willing to humor his new husband.

The passage through airport security was a blur to Harry. He was exhausted, but managed to notice an important detail. The destination of their flight was Rio de Janeiro via Dallas.

"We're going to Brazil?" he asked tiredly.

"You'll see," was all Edward said in response.

It was difficult, but Harry managed to stay awake for all of the flight to Texas and the second passage through security. It was at the second airport that Harry saw another interesting detail: his new passport. When he'd traveled to America, he'd used his uncle's stolen passport and polyjuice potion to assume the man's identity. This new passport had his picture and carried the name 'Jay Peter Harris' on it. Harry was fairly certain that the passport was secured from the same place that the Cullen family obtained all of their forged documents.

The second flight had barely taken off before the human fell asleep with his head leaning against his new husband's shoulder. He remained unconscious until the plane began to taxi in Brazil. It took most of the time moving through customs before Harry was fully awake again.

The vampire was still evading Harry's questions about whether they were staying in Rio de Janeiro or not. He would simply smile at the human's questions and then tell him to be patient. The boy was growing increasingly impatient as he waited while Edward collected their luggage and then went into the restroom in order to change his clothes again. The casual clothing that he'd worn throughout the two flights was insufficient to hide the way his skin could sparkle in direct sunlight.

After Edward left the restroom with a hooded jacket, the pair exited the airport, caught a taxi, and then went to a set of docks at the coast. Harry knew that Edward had had about century to gain a wide range of expertise, but he'd never expected that the vampire could operate a boat.

The pair boarded a decent sized, sleek boat. Edward already had a key for it. This caused Harry's curiosity about their destination to increase. Not only was their destination someplace off the coast—an island, obviously—it was one that was visited with enough frequency that the Cullen family owned its own boat for reaching it.

Edward took the boat out into the open waters off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Harry waited excitedly to see what their final destination would be. He didn't have to wait too long as the vampire soon stretched out his arm and pointed to a dark speck on the horizon.

"Isle Esme," he said.

"Esme?" Harry asked in surprise.

"It is a small island that Carlisle purchased for Esme as a gift a few years ago. She has graciously allowed us the use of the island for the duration of our honeymoon, Mr. Cullen," Edward explained.

"Mr. Cullen," Harry mused aloud. "I like the sound of that."

"As do I."

The island began to expand before Harry's eyes as the boat neared it. Harry didn't know much about islands. As a result, he wasn't sure if Edward's description of Isle Esme as a 'small island' was a joke or a legitimate observation about the island's size. Harry could make out a large jungle-like area; a long, sandy beach; and a small white house.

"I need to go inside and be human for a bit," Harry said as he stood up and stretched while Edward tethered the boat to the dock. The human started to make for the dock but was stopped by Edward. "What?"

"You didn't think you'd deny me the opportunity to take part in this wedding tradition, did you?" the vampire asked in an amused voice.

Harry was confused until Edward literally swept him off of his feet. Edward hoped off of the boat and made for the house, all the while carrying Harry bridal style.

"You've got to be kidding me," Harry said with a chuckle.

Edward gave Harry one of his patented crooked smiles before replying. "I'm not kidding. Let me have this one, okay?"

Harry shook his head before relaxing in his husband's arms. He realized that he'd never reserved for himself the power to veto anything in regards to the honeymoon, only the wedding itself.

The front door was locked, but Edward was able to easily unlock and then open it without sitting Harry down. The vampire took a half-dozen steps into the house before letting Harry down.

"Go and be human," Edward instructed. "I'll go get the bags."

The human watched as his new husband—he loved to think of Edward as his husband—walked out the door and made his way back to the dock.

The first floor of the house was wide-open. There was a living room with a large couch and an entertainment center, a kitchen with a breakfast nook, and a dining area. There were a few sets of doors that Harry believed led to storage or perhaps a laundry room. There was also a set of large French doors that led directly onto the beach. Harry took the stairs to the second floor and found that there were two bedrooms up there: one blue and one white. Both bedrooms had attached bathrooms, but the white bedroom was a little bit larger than the blue one. Mentally dubbing the white bedroom 'the master bedroom,' Harry decided that that was the one he and Edward would occupy on their honeymoon.

Harry only looked the mater bedroom room and its large, mosquito net-covered bed over for a few seconds before he made his way into the bathroom. He'd had the chance to change out of his tuxedo before leaving Forks, but the clothes he'd changed into felt like he'd been wearing them for days. Harry stripped everything off and entered the shower.

He wanted to be quick, but thorough. Edward had promised him that they'd at least try to have sex on their wedding night and Harry wanted everything to be as perfect as possible. One step in that process was to clean the sweat and wolf smell off of his body.

The boy's time in the shower allowed him to think his plans for the evening over. He'd purchased a book about sex a few weeks earlier, but it had proven to be insufficient for his purposes. He'd then purchased a more precise book on the subject of sex between two men. Thanks to the second book, he knew the mechanics of how things were going to work and the preparations he needed to take, but that didn't prevent him from developing butterflies in his stomach.

Once he finished with his shower, he dried himself off and brushed his teeth. The Cullen family had evidently had someone come into the house and stock it with the basic necessities, like shampoo, toilet paper, tooth brushes, and toothpaste. He assumed that the individuals that stocked the house were also the ones that kept things clean; it hadn't gone unnoticed to Harry that the nothing was dust-covered.

Absently, Harry wished that the cleaning crew had bothered to open the windows and air the stuffy and humid house out a bit.

After he'd done everything he could think of in order to prepare, Harry gave himself a final once-over in the mirror. Satisfied with what he saw, he put on a robe that was hanging on the back of the door and walked back into the master bedroom.

Edward was already waiting for him. The room was significantly darker than it had been when Harry first passed through. The curtains had been drawn shut, but a lamp on the nightstand had been lit to provide some light. It made the room feel like it was nighttime.

Beyond the mosquito netting, Harry could see the outline of his husband on the bed. Most of the details of his vampire were obscured by the netting, but he could tell that Edward was shirtless and had the sheets of the bed pulled up to just slightly above his waist. As Harry moves slowly through the room towards the bed, he caught sight of the vampire's clothes on the floor. Edward wasn't just shirtless, he was totally nude.

After only a moment's hesitation, Harry untied his robe and allowed it fall to the floor. He carefully parted the mosquito net and joined his husband.


	34. Chapter 34

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 34: The Honeymoon is Over**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Thirty-Three – The Honeymoon is Over**

Harry woke up cold, achy, and perfectly content.

The first sexual experience had been short, awkward, and frenzied. Both Harry and Edward had been so hell-bent on just being with one another that their actions lacked any similarity to the romanticized visions either had had of their first time. Despite the differences between reality and fantasy, the experience was still utterly satisfying.

The pair had sat in the bedroom for several hours after their first experience talking things over. They discussed what they liked and disliked. The talked at great length about the parts that seemed to push Edward's self-control to its limits. They even discussed the tips and tricks Harry had learned from the book he owned on the topic. Their discussion helped to make their second experience vastly superior to the first.

Where the first experience had been a hurried and uncontrolled affair, the second was slow and methodical. The pair took the time to fully explore one another's bodies before moving on to the more aggressive aspects of sex.

Harry spent quite a while after waking up simply enjoying the feeling of Edward's taunt stomach underneath his head. His body was very sore from their activities and he guessed that he had a fair number of bruises on his body. Sleeping flush against the vampire's cold body, however, seemed to have had a very therapeutic effect; it was like using an ice pack. He might be bruised, but he doubted there was any swelling.

The wizard finally decided that it was unfair to Edward to just do nothing. The immortal didn't sleep, after all; Harry's presence kept him from doing other things while the human slept. Harry slowly shifted his body so that he was no longer right on top of Edward, but beside him instead.

"Morning," Edward said.

"Is it morning? I can't tell."

The vampire chuckled. "Yes, it is indeed morning. How did you sleep?"

"The sleep was okay. The thing before the sleep was pretty amazing," the human answered with a playful smile.

"Yes, it was," Edward concurred before looking down at his husband's body. "I wasn't too, uh, rough was I?"

The way the bronze-haired immortal stumbled momentarily before selecting the word 'rough' told Harry that Edward was very concerned about the prospect of hurting him. "I'm good. A little tender, but I read that that was to be expected after the first time," he said as he sat upright.

Edward seemed to be placated with Harry's answer and didn't bring the matter up again.

For three weeks, Harry and Edward enjoyed their own little island paradise. While Harry did have the opportunity to enjoy such activities as scuba diving and exploring the little jungle-like area of the island, both of the newlyweds were vastly more interested in diving into bed and exploring one another. It seemed that whenever one of them suggested a non-sexual activity, the other would find a way to change the agenda to something more sensual. It wasn't surprising; at least in developmental terms, they were both seventeen years old.

That was an amusing concept to Harry. He and Edward would live together for centuries, perhaps even millennia, and still never grow into being full adults.

The thought was almost as amusing as watching Edward swim about in the water. Just like almost all wildlife, the fish and other sea creatures sensed that the vampire was a much more deadly predator than they were accustomed to and scattered whenever he came anywhere near them. That effect was the reason why Harry settling down in Forks in the first place, though he hadn't realized the specifics of it at the time.

After Harry arrived in New York City over two years before, he immediately caught a flight to Los Angeles. He knew that if he didn't use magic, the primary way that magical individuals would try and find him would be to try and track an owl to him. He'd hoped that if he escaped to the western coast of North America, he'd go beyond the range of any owls. His hope was in vain. The human had barely been in California for a few days before an owl found him. He ended up taking a bus out of the city and traveled north. The owl followed him to every town he went to. Until Forks.

The wizard wasn't clear on why it happened exactly, but the owl veered off course as soon as the bus neared the town. Once the owl left, Harry realized that there was something special about Forks. When no owls returned and no wizards showed up to apprehend him, Harry knew he'd found the refuge he'd been searching for. It wasn't until several months later that Harry learned that all wildlife avoided Forks, Washington as best as possible. They sensed the presence of the vampires. Even the domesticated animals in the region did their damndest to escape and poor Hedwig wasn't comfortable the entire time that she lived with Harry in the town.

The animals continued to stay away even after the Cullens left Forks. Because of the gap in time between when the family left and when Laurent and then Victoria arrived, Harry assumed that the shapeshifters had the same effect on wildlife.

The human was wrenched from his thoughts rather abruptly when something wet landed on his face. Harry pulled the assaulting piece of fabric off of his and found that it was Edward's black swimming trunks. He looked into the water and found Edward looking at him with a suggestive smile.

Harry was just barely able to pull all of his own clothes off before he made it into the water.

It was late that night when the couple was lying in bed that Edward decided to bring up a topic neither of them particularly wanted to deal with. "We're going to have to leave soon."

Harry looked down to where Edward's head was resting against his chest and sighed. "Do you we have to?" he whined in a childlike voice.

"I guess we don't have to. But it would really mess up your plans if we don't leave in the next couple of days. It's just under a week before all of your old friends return to school. Unless you want to delay becoming a vampire and wait until Christmas to try and see any of them, we're going to have to try and catch them before they leave. Unless you've decided to not go back to Britain at all. Or have suddenly figured out where Hogwarts is located."

"It's unplottable, so its location isn't on any map. Magical or otherwise," Harry said as he let his eyes slip closed. "I know the general direction from King's Cross, but that's it."

"I guess we could stay here for a few more weeks and then try to track the school down," Edward suggested in a way that indicated he didn't think it was a good option at all.

"No," Harry said quietly as he ran his fingers through his husband's hair. "No, it will be better to just go and try and catch Hermione at her parent's house."

"I can make the arrangements to leave first thing in the morning, if you'd like."

"Make sure to book a room with a sturdy bed," Harry joked.

The pair was up bright and early the next morning. By the time Harry emerged from the bathroom, Edward had already packed everything and made their travel arrangements. They were both quiet and somber as they left their island hideaway and returned to Rio de Janeiro.

It took a full day to travel from Brazil to Great Britain, and Harry once again found himself to be muddling through customs and security while being almost too tired to stand upright. He'd stayed awake for the entire trip worrying about what he'd say to his friends when he saw them. By the time Harry walked into the suite Edward had booked in downtown London, the boy barely had the energy to flop down on the bed.

When he woke up, he found that he had been stripped down to his boxer shorts and tucked into bed. His husband was lying next to him.

"I'm _so_ not ready for this," Harry muttered as he rolled over and shoved his face into his pillow.

Edward reached over and began to rub small circles in the human's back. The cool sensation felt wonderful to Harry.

"I feel so stupid. I've had two years to think about this. Two years to plan and prepare. To refine everything I want to say so that it comes out just right. And now all I can think about is how awful it's going to be. They're bound to feel betrayed by my running away. And it's going to get worse when they find out that I'm not coming back for good."

"If they're really your friends, then they'll understand," Edward reassured softly as he placed a tender kiss on Harry's shoulder.

"That's the problem. Are they still my friends? The only contact we've had in two years is one measly letter that said I'd show up sometime after my seventeenth birthday. To them, I might just be the guy that ran out on them."

"You didn't have a choice," Edward countered. "You were expelled from school and you were about to have your only means of defense taken away from you. Voldemort would have been able to get at you with no difficulty. If they think that you should have stayed, then they're crazy. And clearly aren't very concerned about your wellbeing."

"Maybe you're right," the human said as he pulled his head out of the pillow. Harry turned to the nightstand and found that it was only four in the morning local time. "Well, there's no way I can go over to the Granger residence this early in the morning. I'll be hexed into oblivion if I do."

"Then I guess that means we have a few hours to kill. I wonder . . . whatever shall we do with the time?"

After some intensive exercise and Harry's usual human routine, Edward called for a cab to take the duo to the address that they believed the Grangers' residence was located. The vampire had obtained the address from his sister, Alice, who had, in turn, found the address over a year and half before when she convinced Harry to send a letter to the Muggleborn girl in order to let her know that he was okay.

The trip through the city was exciting for Harry because he hadn't been to London in years. There was an amazing and unexpected sense of nostalgia about the whole affair. The exhilaration of being back in Britain made the trip to the stately-looking townhouse pass by very quickly.

"You ready?" Edward asked as he paid the driver and then slipped out of the vehicle.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Harry answered as the taxi sped away.

The plan was fairly simple. Harry would go inside and talk to Hermione while Edward waited outside. Ideally, Hermione would be able to contact Ron and make the necessary arrangements for them to meet up in Muggle London. Harry's vampire husband would remain out of sight, but still keep a close eye on the situation in case the Aurors showed up. He had, after all, fled when officials were dispatched to destroy his wand. There was bound to be a penalty for that.

Harry walked swiftly up the stairs that led to the front door. He was just about to knock when Edward's hand clamped down on his arm.

"She's not here," Edward said.

"How do you know? You can't hear the thoughts of wizards."

"No, but I can hear the thoughts of her parents. They're worried about her. She's staying with the Weasley family for the last few days before returning to school."

Harry let out a defeated sigh. "Okay . . . I guess we need a 'plan B.'"

"Yes, we do," Edward said as he led his human away from the residence.

The pair wandered around London for several hours while formulating a new plan. Hermione wasn't at her parents' house; Harry couldn't find Hogwarts; he had no idea where Sirius was; he didn't have an owl to use to contact anyone; and, without a wand, he probably couldn't enter Diagon Alley without causing a scene. He really only had two options: wait and try and meet his friends when they went to King's Cross or go directly to the Burrow.

The former option wasn't a very good one. At best, Harry would have a few scant minutes to talk to his friends before they had to leave for Hogwarts. The latter option wasn't much better. Although he was perfectly capable of traveling to the Muggle side of Ottery St. Catchpole and then finding his way to the Burrow, he would be putting himself right in the middle of a group of wizards. Although Harry had nothing to fear from the Weasley family and Hermione, the disparity in power that the situation would create was very disconcerting to Edward.

It was early afternoon and beginning to rain by the time that the pair agreed to try traveling to the Burrow; it wasn't an ideal plan, but it was all they had. After picking up some rain appropriate attire from the hotel, buying an umbrella, and renting a car, they were off to Ottery St. Catchpole.

They reached Devon shortly after dark and Ottery St. Catchpole at supper time. Edward drove the rented car to the southern side of the River Otter. At Harry's direction, the vampire took the vehicle off-road for several minutes until Harry recognized his surroundings; he could see the area of hills and trees that kept the Burrow from prying Muggle eyes.

"This is it," the human announced.

Edward put the car into park and turned off the engine. "I'll be around. Check your cell phone once you're inside to see if you've got a signal. If you've got one, I'll call you should any Aurors or anyone else suspicious appear on the scene. Then I'm coming in to get you."

"And if my cell phone doesn't have a signal?"

"Then I'll just barge in and get you if there's trouble."

Harry nodded his head. "Let's do this."

The wizard stepped out of the car and opened his umbrella. He pulled his rain jacket closer to his body as he made the short trek to the Burrow. Edward walked with him most of the way, but disappeared as Harry got close to the home.

The wizard soon found himself standing on the doorstep of a home he hadn't been to in almost three years. The last time he was there was the summer before his fourth year at Hogwarts.

After a final, deep breath to slow down his racing heart, Harry reached up and knocked firmly on the door. He heard a male voice shout something after he knocked, but he couldn't quite make it out. A few second later, the door opened.


	35. Chapter 35

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 35: Reunion, Part One**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Thirty-Four – Reunion, Part One**

Charlie Weasley was watching the usual anarchy of the Weasley household from what he considered to be a safe distance. Dinnertime at the Burrow was always a messy affair, but it was significantly worse during the summertime.

There were a dozen people crowded into the ramshackle kitchen. The matriarch of the Weasley clan, Molly, was bustling about between guests trying her hardest to get dinner on the table. Her husband, Arthur, was sitting at the table reading the copy of the _Daily Prophet_ that he'd been unable to read that morning. To Arthur's left was his oldest son, Bill, and Bill's new wife, Fleur. Opposite of Bill and Fleur were the twins, Fred and George. The youngest of the Weasley boys, Ron, was sitting directly opposite of his father. Ron was squished between his younger sister, Ginny, and his girlfriend, Hermione Granger.

Charlie was leaning against the frame of the door that led from the kitchen into the living room. He was one of three people who had come to dinner for whom there was no place to sit. Remus Lupin and Nyphadora Tonks were also standing in the kitchen doing their damndest to not get in Molly Weasley's way.

Everyone was chatting about this tidbit of information about the war effort and that rumor about the Ministry of Magic's attempts to oppose He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The conversation was so loud that Charlie barely heard a pounding on the front door.

The red-headed dragon tamer looked to his family to see if anyone else had heard the sound. Either no one had noticed or no one wanted to volunteer to get the door. Charlie decided that he might as well answer it; even if he wasn't the only one who heard it, he was the closest to the door.

Once Charlie was out of the kitchen and in the living room he called out for whoever was at the door to wait a moment. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand. Although the Burrow was outfitted with the best enchantments and defenses that Albus Dumbledore could provide, one could never be too careful in such dark times.

If one were to write up a list of all of the things that Charlie Weasley expected to see when he'd opened the front door, Harry Potter wouldn't have even made the top 100.

Despite the obvious changes in the boy—he was a bit taller, leaner, and his hair was lighter and styled very differently—Charlie recognized him immediately. Who in all of the British wizarding community wouldn't recognize Harry Potter? His eyes were just as green and the edge of the lfamed ightning bolt scar was visible under the edge of his hair.

Charlie may have recognized Harry immediately, but the opposite wasn't true. Harry had only met Charlie Weasley once, briefly in his fourth year at Hogwarts. Other than that, the only time he could remember seeing the second of the Weasley children was in a photo that had been printed in the _Daily Prophet_ when the Weasley family went to Egypt in the summer between Harry's second and third years at Hogwarts. The photo, as Harry recalled, had appeared because the trip was funded by a large sum of galleons won by Arthur Weasley in the Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw.

Like all of the Weasley boys, Charlie was tall with red hair and an abundance of freckles. Although Harry didn't really know the oldest two Weasley boys very well, he knew that Bill wore an earring and had long hair. The lack of those two identifying features led Harry to conclude that it was Charlie who answered the door.

"Hello, Charlie," Harry greeted somewhat awkwardly.

The redhead opened and closed his mouth several times before he could formulate a response. "Bloody hell," he whispered at last.

Harry couldn't help but smile that the reaction. A particularly violent gust of wind almost took the umbrella from the dark-haired boy's left hand. The sudden jerky motion that the action caused brought Charlie out of his stupor.

"Come in, Harry," the dragon keeper said as he reached out and caught hold of the umbrella to make sure the boy didn't lose hold of it. Charlie took the umbrella from the boy and then motioned for him to enter the house.

Harry stepped past Charlie into the living room. As Charlie closed the umbrella and put it in an rather ancient-looking umbrella stand by the door, Harry took a moment to pull his cellular phone from his pocket. It was a great relief for him to see that he had a signal in the magical home; whatever magical interference existed at Hogwarts that prevented Muggle electronics from working in or near the castle didn't appear to be at work in the Burrow. Buying international minutes suddenly didn't seem like such a waste.

After the second Weasley son had deposited Harry's umbrella in a stand, he turned to look at Harry just in time to catch sight of the boy's mobile phone disappear back into his pocket.

"Dad's gonna want to play with that," Charlie said to try and break the uncomfortable silence.

"I figure that wringing my neck is going to take top priority for most everyone tonight," Harry said with a forced laugh.

"I guess that's right," Charlie conceded. He was about to ask the formerly missing person a question when Molly entered from the kitchen.

"Charlie, dear, who was at the . . ." the woman's voice trailed off as she caught sight of the visitor. She just stared at the boy in shock for a good twenty seconds.

"H-Hi, Mrs. Weasley," Harry stammered out said nervously.

"Harry?" she asked quietly as she leaned forward a bit to get a better look at the boy . She didn't wait for a response. "Oh, Harry!" she cried as she rushed forward and enveloped the boy in a hug.

Mrs. Weasley's shout didn't go unnoticed by the other occupants of the house. As Harry gently returned the woman's hug, he could see most of the rest of the Weasley family, Fleau Delacour, Hermione Granger, Remus Lupin, and an unknown young woman with bubblegum pink hair storm into the room. The expressions on their faces ranged from pure shock to joy. Several of the faces, however, darkened after the initial shock wore off.

The Weasley matriarch pulled back from Harry and took a good look at the boy. Small tears started to well up in the corners of her eyes as she made several good attempts to say something intelligible. "I . . . you . . . we . . ." The woman seemed to only be able to sputter out a variety of pronouns.

Harry decided to take over the conversation. "It's good to see you, Mrs. Weasley."

That seemed to finally give the woman the grounding she needed to ask the question that was undoubtedly on everyone's mind. "Where in blazes have you been?"

The sudden sharp tone caught Harry off guard and caused him to hesitate before starting to answer. "I've been in the States."

"The States? The States?" she cried, her voice growing more and more shrill.

"Molly," Remus Lupin interrupted softly. "Perhaps this is a discussion that can wait just a few moments."

"Wait a few moments?" she rounded on the man. "We've been worried sick for two years! _Two_ _years_! And you want to give him more time!"

Harry was truly impressed with the way Remus Lupin was able to remain calm as he pressed the issue with the irate woman. "Just until we can contact Professor Dumbledore. And Sirius."

The uttering of Harry's godfather's name caused his stomach to do a back-flip.

Mrs. Weasley's face had gone so red by this point that the place where her thinning red hair ended and her face began became obscured. She began to grit her teeth together so tightly that Harry was afraid she was going to chip something. The woman choked back another argument before taking a deep, calming breath. "Well, go floo him," she ordered in a strained voice.

Together with the woman that Harry didn't know, Remus Lupin moved towards the fireplace as Mrs. Weasley took hold of Harry's hand and pulled him towards the kitchen. The crowd of people that had filled the doorway parted for the pair. The dark-haired wizard was forced to sit in a chair at the family dinner table in the same way that a parent might sit an unruly child down for a timeout. Mrs. Weasley didn't leave his side as the rest of the wizards returned to the kitchen. Harry took this moment of uncomfortable silence to look over the group and observe the changes that had taken place in the past two years.

He couldn't pick out any physical changes in Bill Weasley for the simple fact that they'd never had any significant interaction beforehand. The eldest of the Weasley boys—who was sitting down from Harry's right—could have grown a second head and Harry wouldn't have known if it was a recent addition or not. He was taller but less muscled than Charlie, had his hair pulled into a ponytail, and had an earring that appeared to be made out of a fang. The thing about Bill that seemed out of place and, therefore, caught Harry's eye was the wedding band on his left hand. That, he was certain, was the reason why Fleur Delacour—or rather, Fleur Weasley—was present.

The half-veela's presence had surprised Harry. It wasn't a bad surprise, however. Harry had competed against the girl during the Triwizard Tournament. Although she'd initially been very frosty towards him, their relationship had thawed after Harry rescued her younger sister, Gabrielle, from the bottom of the lake during the second task. While most of the individuals present had very guarded expressions, the delicate-looking blonde was smiling broadly at Harry and managed to position herself between Harry and Bill.

Off to Harry's right, Fred and George looked the same. Both were still stocky redheads. They were a bit taller than the last time Harry had seen them, but not significantly so.

Just like Fred and George, Molly and Arthur looked very much the same. The only noticeable difference was the thinning of their hair.

Ginny, Hermione, and Ron were all sitting directly opposite of Harry. Although they all looked much more grown up than the last time they'd been together, they were still very much like how the boy remembered them. Hermione still had her mane of bushy brown hair and Ron's limbs still looked too long for his body. In Harry's eyes, they were brilliant.

Charlie Weasley was the last of the group to enter the room and took up a position by the door. He crossed his arms and watched Harry very closely. Perhaps a bit too closely for the boy's comfort.

Harry had feared that he was going to have to sit in awkward silence with the group for however long it took for Remus Lupin to contact the headmaster, but Fleur began talking very shortly after he sat down.

"Oh, 'Arry. We are all so very pleazed to zee you. We weren't sure if you were ever coming back at all." Her French accent, Harry noticed, wasn't nearly as strong as it had been during the Triwizard Tournament. He guessed that she'd spent a significant amount of time in Britain since the last time the two saw one another. That would go a long way to explaining her relationship with Bill.

"I'm very sorry I missed it," Harry said apologetically. "If you're registered somewhere-"

"Oh, no, no, no," the Fleur interrupted. "I am just 'appy that you alright."

"Well, congratulations then. Have you already been on your honeymoon?"

"_Oui_. To Spain."

"That's lovely," Harry replied. He bit the inside of his lip for a moment and decided it was best to just take the plunge, as had frequently been his method of approaching uncomfortable news. He knew that there was no way of easing everyone into this particular topic, so why waste a perfectly good opening? "I went to Brazil for my honeymoon."

The silence that met his statement was deafening. For a long moment, Harry was certain that no one in the room caught what he'd said. And then, he was hit with a flurry or irate questions all at once. No one except Fleur seemed pleased with the prospect of Harry being married.

Before Harry could make the slightest attempt at answering any of the questions being hurled his direction, Fleur took hold of his left hand under the table, felt for the wedding ring, and then pulled the hand out to examine it. She let out a high-pitched squeal of delight upon getting a good look at the pair of rings.

"Oh, 'Arry, it is wonderful!"

"Harry?" came a new voice in the mass. It wasn't very loud, but it was distinctive to Harry's ears and so seemed to pierce through the noise of the other voices.

The boy looked up to see his godfather, Sirius Black, standing in the doorway. Everyone stopped talking when the escaped convict entered the room.

The dark-haired boy who was the focus of all of the commotion slid from his chair and ended up meeting Sirius in the middle of the room. The older man gave his godson a fierce hug. "I can't believe it. I thought you were never coming back," he said quietly to his godson. "I thought you were dead."

"Dead?" Harry asked in surprise.

Sirius pulled back to look at his godson. "We tried everything to find you. The Ministry watched carefully for any sign of magic. We sent out owls. We even alerted the Muggle authorities to your disappearance."

"Oh, wow," Harry said. "I knew that you'd send owls and stuff, but contacting the police?"

"Yes," came a sneering voice from behind Sirius. "Everyone has been working themselves into quite the panic for you, arrogant boy," spat the unmistakable voice of Severus Snape.

Harry peered over Sirius's shoulder to see where his least favorite instructor of all time stood. The man was standing to the left of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore.

The boy had no retort for Snape's statement, so opted to ignore the man in favor of talking to Sirius. "I haven't used magic since that patronus charm. And owls just seemed to avoid the place I've been living. But I don't know why the police didn't find me. Maybe I got lucky."

"Lucky?" Sirius asked sharply. "Being off on your own for two years was lucky?"

"With everything that's happened to me in the last two years? Yeah, I think I'm probably the luckiest guy in the whole world. And I wasn't alone."

"Yeah," Fred chimed in. "He's married and all now."

"M-Married?" Sirius asked flabbergasted. His eyes drifted down to Harry's hand for a moment as he took in the sight of the engagement and wedding rings.

"Only a few weeks now," Harry said.

Sirius was suddenly very pale and looked like he had no idea what to say to Harry. His speechlessness and indecision didn't last very long. "How could you be so stupid?" he shouted.

The question caused Harry to reel back from his godfather as though he'd been slapped across the face. "Stupid?"

"You run away from the one place that you were absolutely safe. You skip two years of school and worry everyone to death. You hide out in some place that the people who want to protect you can't find you. And you get married to some . . . some trollop that could be a Death Eater who's trying to do you in. Yes, 'stupid' is very apt description of your actions."

Harry did his best to not react to Sirius's words. He knew as soon as the man began his tirade that he was speaking out of anger. But the moment the man started to disparage Harry's marriage, something just snapped. The boy pulled his arm back and punched Sirius right in the nose.

The animagus staggered backwards away from Harry. Blood immediately began to spurt out of his broken nose.

"I got _expelled_. Aurors were on their way to snap my wand and make damn sure that I was totally defenseless whenever Voldemort decided to come knocking on the door. So rather than wait for a bunch of Fudge's cronies to make things as easy as possible for the bastard, I ran. I ran as far and as fast as I could and I found some place that nobody could find me. Not Death Eaters, not Aurors. I found a safe place to hide and I stayed put. And, by some miracle, I found my soul mate there. The one person in the whole of the world that makes me feel like all of the shit in my life is going to turn out okay. And we got married. You can call me a coward for running. You can say that I didn't think things through when I ran off and didn't try to get help from one of you. But don't you _fucking_ dare say me getting married was stupid."

Harry could make out Sirius's horrified expression behind the hands he had clamped around his gushing nose.

Before any more violence could break out, Headmaster Dumbledore decided to intervene. "I believe, Harry, that we all have a great deal to discuss."

**A/N: **This is part one of three.


	36. Chapter 36

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 36: Reunion, Part Two**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Thirty-Five – Reunion, Part Two**

Harry shook his hand a couple of times as he watched Remus Lupin help Sirius up off of the floor. The boy's hand hurt, but not too terribly. He made a mental note to thank Emmett and Jasper for teaching him how to throw a proper punch.

The werewolf drew his wand and went about fixing the dog animagus's broken nose and banishing the blood from his face and clothes. Sirius dared a quick glance over at Harry, but didn't say anything.

"Let us move into the living room where there is a bit more elbow room for us to talk," the headmaster suggested. He motioned for Harry to follow him out of the kitchen.

After a moment's hesitation, Harry followed the ancient wizard into the living room and took up a position by the window. The rest of the occupants entered the room and positioned themselves as comfortably as possible.

Ginny sat herself at the bottom of the staircase while Fred and George sat just a couple of steps higher where they could watch everything between the support rails of the banister. Bill and Fleur sat down next to one another at one end of the couch and, a result, had their backs to Harry. The woman with the spiky pink hair took the seat next to them. Arthur and Molly Weasley each sat in one of the two chairs that sat on the far wall from Harry. Sirius leaned next to the fireplace with Remus Lupin while Snape leaned on the other side of the hearth in the corner of the room farthest away from Harry; he seemed rather pleased with Harry's assault on Sirius. Charlie leaned against the wall just a few feet down from Harry with a scowl planted on his face.

The last two individuals to enter the living room were Ron and Hermione. They had yet to say a word to Harry; they hadn't even made an attempt. The dark-haired wizard didn't even recall them trying to yell anything when he'd announced his marriage. They stayed at the threshold between the living room and the kitchen. Harry couldn't help but smile a little at the way Hermione reached out and gently took hold of Ron's hand.

Headmaster Dumbledore, who had been standing in the center of the room in the space between the couch and the two chairs that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley occupied, began to pace the room. "Do forgive me. I think better on my feet."

No one said anything as the headmaster assembled his thoughts.

"I must admit, Harry, that I have given a great deal of thought to the specifics of your disappearance. Early on I had considered, but dismissed, the possibility that you had fled your aunt's home in-between correspondence."

"What do you mean by that?" Harry asked.

"You were sent a letter by the Ministry of Magic informing you that you were expelled from Hogwarts and that your wand was to be destroyed. I received simultaneous notification of this because I am, after all, the headmaster of the school from which you were being expelled. I went to the Ministry and managed to prevent the Aurors from being dispatched to your aunt's home. Arthur, meanwhile, sent you a letter telling you to not leave the house.

"Arthur's letter was not returned to him, so I assumed that you had gotten it and, therefore, dismissed the idea that you had fled your home without the knowledge contained within it. By the surprised look on you face, I would assume that you did not receive the letter. I, therefore, suspect that left your aunt's home after you received the letter from the Ministry and then either your aunt or uncle received and destroyed the letter from Arthur in the same way they did your first acceptance letter to Hogwarts."

"What?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"It's is quite simple actually, Sirius. Harry believed, based on the letter he had received from the Ministry of Magic, that he was expelled from Hogwarts and that his holly and phoenix feather wand—the only protection he was aware of and the means by which he had survived his latest encounter with Voldemort—was about to be confiscated and destroyed. Though we tried to inform him that this was not he case, he was unable to receive our letter because he'd already left the house. Or, more likely, he was on his way out of the house as the owl was arriving."

"So he didn't know?" Sirius asked as he looked back and forth from the headmaster to his godson. "All of this has been because of Fudge overstepping himself and some really bad timing?"

"It would appear so," the headmaster said wearily as he stopped pacing. "Perhaps, Harry, you can enlighten us on things from your perspective."

"I think you're right about the timing thing," Harry said with his eyes fixed on the floor. "I grabbed some of my stuff and flew out the window on my broom as soon as I got the letter that said that the Aurors were coming. I never got a second owl. But getting and destroying the letter seems like the sort of thing my aunt and uncle would do."

"Believing that you were about to be made a, I believe the phrase is 'sitting duck,' by the Ministry, you fled your relative's house. You then used polyjuice potion to assume you uncle's appearance. With his appearance and his pilfered passport, you were able to fly to America via Muggle means. And that is where we lost track of you," Albus Dumbledore said.

"I figured that you'd followed me at least that far. I took another flight out of the same airport and then started taking buses and stuff. I figured the Aurors weren't very far behind me, so I just kept going. An owl kept following me until I hit a certain town, then it veered off. I waited there for a couple of days. No owls. No wizards. I decided it was a reasonably safe place to hide out, so I stayed there."

"The owl veered off, you say? Curious." Headmaster Dumbledore sighed heavily. "What I do not understand, Harry, is why you didn't try and contact us. You know that we could have helped you."

"Helped me do what?" Harry asked in exasperation. "I get that you managed to intervene so that I wasn't expelled, but I didn't know that. As far as I was concerned, if I'd been able to get to you—and that was a pretty damn big if—I was still expelled. The best you could have done was help me be a fugitive like Sirius. The difference between him and me being that I underage. If I tried to use magic before I turned seventeen, I'd get caught. Hiding out as a Muggle was the best option," Harry defended himself. "I was sidelined at least until I turned seventeen. Given the way things worked out in the past, I figured that it was best if I was the only one who knew where I was hiding."

Dumbledore didn't have an answer to that. On its face, Harry's logic was sound. The boy had no way of knowing that the man had been able to intervene on his behalf. From Harry's prospective, the best that he could offer the boy was what the man had been able to offer Sirius: practically nothing. Hiding as a Muggle was the best option and, as Peter Pettigrew's betrayal of Harry's parents had proven, the boy was safest if no one knew where to find him.

"Still," Mrs. Weasley began, "you could have done something to let us know that you were okay."

"But I did," Harry protested. "I used a special service to send a letter to Hermione's house through Muggle post a few months after I was settled in. I told her that I was safe and that I would be back after I turned seventeen."

Every head in the room whirled around to look at the bushy-haired muggleborn. Her eyes were downcast.

"'Mione?" Ron asked uncertainly.

"I-I'm so sorry, Ron," she croaked out. "There was a letter from Harry waiting for me when I went to see my parents over Chrismas break. I was just . . . just so _angry_ at him that I tore it up and threw it in the fireplace without reading it," she confessed.

Hermione's confession stung Harry deeply. He knew that she had every right to feel angry and betrayed, but to destroy the letter without reading it . . . To not even let the others know that she'd received it seemed to be beyond the pale.

"How could you?" her boyfriend exploded as he yanked his hand away from hers. "You knew he was alive and you didn't tell us!"

Hermione was looking back and forth between Harry and Ron in rapid succession as tears began to well up in her eyes. "I was just so angry with him. Please, Ron, you have to understand," she pleaded.

"You were angry. Fine. That doesn't explain why you hid it from me. I was angry too. I was angry and worried. I was scared that my best mate had run out and gotten himself offed," Ron said dangerously.

"I don't know why I did it. I just did," she said in a quiet and defeated voice.

Ron looked angrier than Harry had ever seen him.

"Please," Harry interrupted quietly. "Don't be mad at her. Be mad at me. I'm the one that ran out."

Ron didn't look entirely convinced. The red-haired boy couldn't meet either Hermione or Harry with his eyes; he just looked down at the floor.

Hermione looked up at Harry through teary eyes. "I don't know what to say to you, Harry. That was such an awful thing for me to have done."

"Just forget about it," Harry replied blandly. "I'm the one that caused all of this, not you."

"How about we all forget about what's happened in the past and try to look to the future," Arthur Weasley interjected. "Harry's back now. He's safe and unharmed. Let's just move on from here."

The dark-haired boy decided to interrupt before anyone got any ideas. "But that's the thing. I'm not 'back.' I'm not staying."

"What do you mean you're not staying?" Ron asked. It was the first thing he'd said that was actually directed at Harry.

"I told you earlier. I'm married. I didn't intend for my absence to be anything permanent. But . . . I found things while I was away that I'm not willing to give up. I'm married. I have a family: a husband, two new brothers, two new sisters, and two new parents."

"'Husband'?" Ginny Weasley asked from the steps in tone that made it sound as if her world was crashing down around her. She was by no means the only person in the room who looked shocked at Harry's use of the term 'husband,' but she was the only one who managed to say anything on that particular topic before someone else asked a far more relevant question.

"But, but what about You-Know-Who?" The still unnamed girl on the couch asked.

"Potter is far too selfish to live up to his responsibilities, Nymphadora," Snape answered for Harry.

"My responsibility?" Harry asked, an edge returning to his voice. "How exactly is this _my_ responsibility? I ripped his soul out of his body when I was a baby and I stopped him getting is body back in my first year at Hogwarts. I've done my part. If you want to talk about responsibility, then let's start with that tattoo on your arm."

Snape pushed himself away from his place at the wall and started to make his way towards Harry. The headmaster reached out and placed a hand on the professor's chest to stop him.

"Harry," Sirius began in utter disbelief, "he murdered your parents."

"And I'm pretty sure they'd prefer me to not end up the same way. Besides, I've got more to live for in my life than revenge."

"I am afraid that things are not that simple, my boy," the headmaster said. "Voldemort's power has been growing these past two years. He has a great many more followers than he did the last time you met. Even if you run back to you new home, he will find you."

"Because he's got such a great track record for that so far," Harry retorted.

"This family that you claim to love so much, are you willing to risk their lives?"

Harry spoke with more confidence than he felt. "They're all pretty handy in a fight. They can each hold their own, not that they'd have to. We're a family. If Voldemort messes with one of us, he messes with all of us. And that's a level of trouble he doesn't want. Trust me on that."

The headmaster shook his head. "I am afraid, Harry, that you have no choice in this matter. You must remain here and participate in the fight against Voldemort."

The boy could feel the mobile phone in his pocket vibrating. Something was up. Unfortunately, there was no way that he could get out the door; there were just too many people in the room that would have been able to stop him. He began hoping that whatever had caused Edward to call Harry's phone would create a suitable distraction to allow him to escape.

"You want to send someone with a fourth year education to fight a wizard that you've never been able to beat," Harry said as he turned around to face the window that had been to his back.

"We will train you, Harry. Give you every bit of support we can to make sure that you are ready to do this. I am so very sorry that things have to be this way, but there is simply no other way."

Harry was looking out into the darkness beyond the window, hoping to figure a way out of the situation. He couldn't see anything except for the reflection of the Burrow's living room in the glass. The occupants of the room had a myriad of expressions on their facing. Snape looked rather smug with the way things were progressing. Others, like the twins, looked very uneasy.

"You're a fool and a coward," Harry said firmly as he looked out the window. He was desperately searching for any sign of his husband. The boy was beginning to fear that the protections around the house were too great for Edward to overcome.

"How dare you!" Snape spat as his smug attitude melted away. The man once again tried to move towards Harry, but the headmaster still refused to allow him to pass.

"Harry-" Albus Dumbledore began.

Harry refused to allow the man to finish. "You're just a scared old man trying to send someone else out to do what you won't."

"What I can't, Harry," the old man countered desperately. "I can't beat Voldemort. You are the only one who can."

The boy shook his head. "Whatever advantage I had over him is long since gone. The protection my mother gave me was lost when Voldemort took my blood. And my wand was broken months ago."

"Your wand was broken?" Mrs. Weasley interrupted sharply. "I thought that you didn't have any encounters with wizards."

"I didn't," Harry replied simply.

"But you've had encounters with other creatures. Ones whose presence keeps owls away," the headmaster concluded.

Harry cursed himself for giving away the detail about how owls avoided the town he'd settled in. "Wrong. The wand was broken by accident when I was moving in with my husband," he lied. "If I'd encountered anything like what you're suggesting, I would have used magic to defend myself. And you would have known it."


	37. Chapter 37

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 37: Reunion, Part Three**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Thirty-Six – Reunion, Part Three**

Albus Dumbledore looked unconvinced by Harry's lie. It didn't really matter, though. The boy had no intention of revealing that he'd been living in a town filled with vampires and shapeshifters, let alone that he'd married one of the aforementioned vampires. As far as Harry was concerned, the ancient wizard could believe whatever he wanted to.

"So what's your grand plan? Just going to hold me captive? Throw me at Voldemort when the time is right and hope that he's the one of us that dies?"

"No, Harry. We plan on teaching you. With hard work, you'll be able to rejoin your classmates by the time classes resume after Christmas. It will make this fall exceptionally busy, but I have every confidence-"

"I will not cooperate," Harry interrupted firmly.

"Harry," Sirius began. "You don't mean that."

"I do," the dark-haired boy replied. He didn't spare Sirius a glance; he was still very put out with the animagus.

"Then let's just obliviate the boy and be done with it," Professor Snape suggested venomously.

The man's words caused cold fear to seep into Harry's heart as though the words had been the fangs of a snake. He clenched his jaw so as to prevent his face from betraying his fear openly, but the triumphant look in the potions professor's eyes revealed that the man knew he'd struck a blow.

Fortunately for Harry, most of the other occupants of the room were quick to shout down Professor Snape's suggestion. The headmaster, however, looked like he was actually giving the idea some serious thought.

"There's no way in hell I'll allow you to erase his memories," Sirius snapped at Professor Snape furiously.

"What do you care if we just get rid of his memories from the past two years? He can go back to being your little godson. It's not like he'll forget anything of value," the greasy-haired man replied before turning to the headmaster. "He'll forget this ludicrous marriage of his and be just as eager to do whatever you want as he was the day he left Hogwarts."

Headmaster Dumbledore's silence was really beginning to unnerve Harry. The man had always been someone that the boy thought of as a moral compass, but everything he was doing now just seemed so very wrong. Trying to force Harry to participate in war. Considering altering his mind to remove his opposition. The idea of it all was barbaric.

The disagreement between Sirius and Professor Snape soon drew in the other participants of the room. While the majority of the room had tried to shout down the man's idea when he'd first suggested it, they now took part in actually arguing with the man.

Finally, the headmaster decided to end the debate. "No, Severus. We will do no such thing. Using magic in such a way to make free people into slaves is Voldemort's way. Not ours."

"But Voldemort's way in the one that is working," the man countered.

The headmaster fixed his subordinate with a hard glare. "I believe, Severus, that your ferocity and determination to see this war to a, how shall we say, 'desirable ending,' has clouded your judgment."

The potions professor shrank back from the headmaster's softly spoken rebuke, but did not openly concede the point.

Although Harry watched the interaction, his mind was elsewhere. He was desperately trying to figure out how to escape the house and return to his husband before the headmaster was convinced to engage in a course of action that would be detrimental to Harry's marriage and freedom. Had he been confronted with only the Weasley family and Hermione, the situation wouldn't have been so hopeless. Harry could have found a way to excuse himself to the bathroom or something and then flee through the window. But such a simple trick wouldn't work on the headmaster. He had to come up with something more cunning. Something, for lacking a better description, more Slytherin.

He was also concerned about the possibility of Aurors bursting through the door at any moment. It had been several minutes since his mobile phone had vibrated in his pocket. If either Aurors or Death Eaters were present, they could be preparing something devastating. They could be attacking Edward while Harry was stuck inside the house.

"So what is your plan then? I'm not going to cooperate and you're not going to force me. That seems to put us at a bit of a stalemate, wouldn't you say?" Harry asked after the headmaster silenced Severus Snape.

"I intend on you staying right where you are. You've been cut off from our world for two years. I trust that, in time, when you see the suffering of your people, you will come around," the ancient wizard explained.

Harry couldn't help but laugh. "That's it? That's your plan?"

"I fail to see what is so funny, Harry," the old man said.

"Your plan is to hope that I'll fall prey to Stockholm Syndrome?"

"Stockawhat?" Sirius asked.

Harry looked at his godfather for moment before explaining. "In the 1970s, two ex-convicts attempted to rob a Swedish bank. In the course of the robbery, they took four individuals as hostages and then kept them for almost a week. After the ordeal was over and the hostages were liberated, the hostages actually _defended_ the robbers' actions. Two of the hostages even married two of the robbers.

"There are many theories about why the hostages came to identify with their captors. Some researches think that it has something to do with fear. Perhaps the hostages misunderstand the minor breaks in the terror to be acts of kindness by the captors. Others believe it is a simple survival mechanism. Either way, the psychological phenomenon whereby the hostages develop emotional attachments to, and begin to identify with, their captors is now known as 'Stockhold Syndrome.'"

"We're not holding you hostage!" Sirius protested in a desperate attempt to make his godson see reason.

"How would you describe this situation?" Harry challenged the man.

Sirius struggled to find an answer. "You're just a child. You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into. Or what needs to be done. We're just making sure you make the right choices."

"Let's put aside for a moment the fact that you just called me a child yet still expect me to do your fighting for you. You can try to use good intentions to disguise the truth, but in the end you're just like the hostage takers in my story. I'm seventeen and, therefore, a legal adult by your laws."

Harry's use of the phrase, 'your laws,' did not go unnoticed by the other individuals present.

"I have every legal right to leave this place. You're holding me against my will and against the law. I am your hostage."

Sirius was about to try another argument against the teen, but was silenced when the headmaster raised his hand. The old wizard had never looked so weary to Harry, not even on the night of Voldemort's resurrection. Headmaster Dumbledore's blue eyes seemed dull and grey to Harry.

"You are correct, Harry. We will be holding you against your will. And against the law. We can try to disguise our actions with good intentions, but those attempts are mere obfuscation. You've grown into a very keen young man; you are not quite the brash boy I remember. The boy who always jumped in without thinking has been replaced. While I am happy to see how you have grown, I am saddened to see that you have lost all empathy and sense of connection to your own world."

"This was never my world," Harry said as he closed his eyes. When he reopened them, he fixed a glare at his former headmaster. "I'm seventeen. I've spent less a third of my life in the magical community. About a year after I was born and four years of schooling, minus the summer holidays."

"Even considering your limited involvement with our world, I do not believe that you can remain so resistant to the idea of helping us when you realize what we are up against."

Remus Lupin took over at this point. "Things are not going well, Harry. The Ministry spent over a year dragging its heels. It didn't acknowledge Voldemort's return until after Madam Bones and many others who could have rallied the opposition to the Death Eaters were murdered. And they only admitted the truth then because Voldemort committed several of the murders himself and then cast the Dark Mark into the sky above the scenes."

Harry really didn't want to get sucked into this, but he needed to buy more time to figure out how to escape. It was becoming increasingly apparent that whatever had caused his husband to call his phone, it was not an attack. He likely realized that he was unable to get through the house's magical defenses and thought to warn Harry of that fact.

He decided that he needed to keep Remus Lupin talking. "Why not go ahead and take out Fudge with these other potential leaders, Professor?"

"I haven't been your professor for many years, Harry. Please call me Remus. And in answer to your question, it was because Fudge was so inept that they wanted to keep him in power for as long as possible. And they did. Even after Voldemort's public return, his forces within the Ministry managed to keep Fudge in power for an extended period of time. And Fudge was not a man suited for wartime governing. If Lucius Malfoy hadn't died in attempt to murder the headmaster, Fudge would likely still be in power."

"Now that last part just sounds plain stupid. Why would Voldemort send one of his best lieutenants on a doomed mission that would cost him direct control of the Ministry?"

Mr. Weasley answered that question. "We think that Malfoy failed You-Know-Who somehow and that he was sent on a suicide mission as punishment. You-Know-Who had already damaged the Ministry as much as he could have without actually putting Malfoy into the minister's office."

"Malfoy had outlived his usefulness then," Harry concluded.

"Precisely," Remus Lupin confirmed. "Fudge was sacked, but the Ministry was in tatters. It has been forced to rely on very draconian methods to remain intact since that time. If the headmaster wasn't here . . ." the werewolf trailed off.

"The Ministry has all but fallen. The major figures, other than the headmaster, who could have rallied the opposition are all dead. And you think a reluctant seventeen-year-old with a fourth year education is going to sweep in and turn the tide," Harry said whimsically with a flourish of his hands. "I'm not heartless, I'm realistic. Unless I happen to be standing in front of a mirror when Voldemort tries to curse me and I trip at the appropriate moment so that he gets hit with his own spell, I'm not going to be any help. If anything, your people will get themselves killed because there's a civilian on the battlefield."

Harry could see the headmaster's frustration in the way that his posture became rigid. It wasn't the sort of straightening that accompanied a man raising himself up to redouble his efforts, but rather the action of a weary man desperately trying to keep himself upright. As he watched the old man, he could see some sort of conflict on his face. The old man was wrestling with something terrible and Harry greatly feared that, in the face of the younger wizard's resolve, he would resort to Professor Snape's plan.

Time was running out and Harry still hadn't figured out how to escape the Burrow. He turned himself back towards the window and tried to look into the stormy night beyond. Just as the last time he'd looked out, he couldn't see anything but his own reflection.

The entire room was silent. The various wizards and witches around the room, Harry realized, were hoping that his resolve was cracking. That he was thinking the headmaster's words over and would soon decide to stay and fight their fight.

A flash of lightning momentarily illuminated the scene beyond the window and Harry could see his husband just a few feet away from him. The vampire was soaking wet from the rain and looking at Harry in desperation.

A plan began to form in Harry's mind. Like most of his plans, it was ludicrous. Then again, ludicrous seemed to work for him.

The boy turned from the window and strolled across the room and around the couch. He made like he was going to the headmaster, but then turned on his heel and sprinted back towards his former place by the window. At the last possible second, he leapt at the window in an attempt to break through it. He used his arms to shield his head from the impact and any shards of glass.

His plan was a very simple one: leap through the window and then rely on Edward to get him to safety. He knew that jumping through the glass would cut his arms and cause him to bleed, but he had faith in the vampire's self-control. Edward had been with Harry while he was bleeding before and had resisted the urge to feed. And their recent activities demonstrated that the vampire's self-control was growing by leaps and bounds.

Unfortunately, Harry's plan didn't take into account the spells and enchantments that had been placed on the window to prevent it from breaking. He hit the widow and rebounded hard to the floor. There was shouting and a fair bit of shrieking when Harry fell to the floor. He was pretty sure he'd broken his left wrist upon impacting with the window, but managed to keep himself from crying out in pain.

Charlie was the first of the other occupants of the room to reach Harry's side. He took hold of the younger wizard by the shoulders and tried to help him sit up. As Charlie hovered over him, the boy saw a new opportunity to escape.

When Charlie moved in close to Harry, his wand became visible as it stuck out his pants' pocket. With his right hand, the younger wizard reached out, grasped the wand, and pointed it back at the wall in front of him. Charlie didn't realize what was happening until it was too late.

Although the window and the wall in which it was embedded in were strong enough to withstand a teenage boy crashing into them, they weren't strong enough to resist a blasting charm. The wand wasn't his and he was very much out of practice, but the spell worked well enough to blast away a relatively small chunk of the wall. A hole of a few square feet now exposed the living room and its occupants to the storm outside.

Several of the other occupants of the room reacted with shouts of alarm and anger at Harry's actions, but they quickly faded into cries of fear when Edward made his presence known. The vampire dove through the little hole that had been blasted into the side of the house.

Spells began to fly in Harry's general direction as Edward landed at his side. The vampire swatted Charlie Weasley away from Harry as if he was a red-headed rag doll.

Edward made several attempts to pick Harry up and remove him from the house, but he was forced back by the magic being cast in his direction. None of the spells actually hit the immortal, but the act of dodging the spells caused him to alternatively gain and lose ground.

Harry tried to defend his husband with a shielding spell, but found himself quickly disarmed. By whom, he wasn't sure.

Although the spellcasters were fast, the vampire was faster. He dodged the spells with the ease and grace of a dancer. But Harry knew that he couldn't keep it up forever. Although the vampire would not fatigue, the wizards would eventually get over their shock at his sudden appearance and start working together rather than just tossing spells in their current desperate manner; they'd eventually be able to box Edward in.

The spells slowly destroyed more and more of the wall to the point that the small opening that Edward had just barely been able to squeeze through was expanded into a gaping hole that even Vernon Dursley could have fit through.

Harry had another moment of inspiration. He did the only thing he could think of doing to help Edward: he stood up. The wizards were perfectly willing to hurl spells at and even attempt to kill Edward, but they weren't willing to risk hurting Harry. They had made it abundantly clear that they needed him, after all.

The boy's body provided Edward the cover he needed. Not only did Harry's body shield Edward from the spells, but it ensured that the wizards could only throw stunning spells at Edward for fear of accidentally hitting Harry. And, because vampires were incapable of sleeping or otherwise being unconscious, such spells shattered harmlessly against Edward's crystalline skin. It was like casting a tickling charm on a rock.

The only real danger of the wizards' spells having been neutralized, Edward was able to safely grab hold of his husband and move backwards out of the house.

The entire fiasco only took about a minute; less than sixty seconds passed between when Harry dove at the window and when Edward began to sprint away from the Burrow and towards the rented car.


	38. Chapter 38

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 38: Flight**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Thirty-Seven – Flight**

The scenery passed by so quickly that Harry could barely make any of it out. Cradled in the protective embrace of his vampiric husband, he was rushed through the pouring rain away from the Burrow and towards where the rental car was parked.

Just as Edward cradled Harry against his chest, Harry cradled his broken wrist against his own. The pain was severe, but nothing he couldn't handle. He'd suffered far worse, after all.

The human struggled to look at his surroundings as it raced by. He could tell that they were passing by trees, but everything blurred by so quickly that he couldn't really see any of the distinct silhouettes of the foliage.

The rain stopped falling on the wizard's head as he was gently placed into the passenger seat of the car. It wasn't even a heartbeat later that Edward was in the driver's seat and turning the key in the ignition.

The vampire was excellent at masking his anxieties when the situation demanded it, but his young husband could see through such pretenses. Edward was worried, and with good reason. The wizards had made it abundantly clear that they had no intention of letting Harry go.

The pair had fled from the home of the Weasley family only moments before. It would take a few minutes for the wizards to move beyond the magical protections of the Burrow and pursue them by apparition and broomstick, so their escape must be a quick one. Apparition, fortunately, would be an ineffective means of pursuit. Attempting to apparate into a moving vehicle could have disastrous results. Even if the wizards were desperate enough to risk ending up stuck inside part of the car's frame, it was unlikely that they would risk appearing out of thin air within an arm's reach of a very angry vampire. It was far more likely that the pursuit would be by broomstick.

Harry opted to not bother Edward while he was driving. It seemed to be a far better course of action to simply let the vampire multitask. Edward needed all of his senses free in order to drive the car and watch for any sign of the wizards' pursuit.

To the human's great relief, no attack came. He strongly suspected that any attempt by the wizards to catch them by broomstick was being hampered by the storm. The weather coupled with the fact that Edward had the headlights turned off made the car almost invisible on the dark country roads the car was speeding down.

It was several long minutes before Edward calmed down enough to be able to thoroughly check on his husband without risking a serious car wreck. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Other than the fact that the people I came to visit decided to try and hold me hostage? Yeah, I'm great," Harry muttered darkly as he stared out the window.

A cold sensation enveloped his broken wrist as the vampire reached over and wrapped a frigid hand around it. The pain that Harry had been feeling since throwing himself at the window subsided slightly. It wasn't the first time that Edward's cold body had served as an ice pack for the human, but the effect always seemed to catch him by surprise.

Harry looked over at his husband and gave him a grateful yet sad smile. "Really, I'll be okay. I'm just a little shaken is all. Of all the things I'd expected, that wasn't it. I mean, I knew there was a good chance that Voldemort was still around, but I never thought that my . . . that they'd resort to that." He stumbled towards the end of his statement when he almost referred to the group of wizards as 'his friends.' He'd doubted beforehand whether he'd still be their friend, but now he was certain that they were not his.

Edward hesitated for only a second before deciding to go ahead and tell his husband what had been eating away at him for some time. "They planned to call in the headmaster as soon as they saw you. They were resolved the moment you made your appearance to hold you captive and make you fight this war for them. I could hear it in their minds, over and over again. 'It's got to be him. He has to do it. He has to kill Voldemort for us.' It was almost like a mantra."

"You could hear them?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Most of them. I couldn't hear the thoughts of either the headmaster or Snape. The rest of them, though. Their thoughts were being broadcast loud and clear."

"Did . . . Did any of their thoughts ever tell you why?"

"Why what? Why I couldn't hear the headmaster and Snape or why they planned to make you fight?"

"Either, I guess."

"There was no reason for the first to come up. It was strange, though. It wasn't like your inner voice. I can always hear strange chattering when I'm near you, as if two people are trying to talk over one another. The end result is that everything is too muddled and distorted to make out. By comparison, the thoughts of the both the headmaster and Snape were just absent. As though they had no minds at all.

"As to the second issue, I didn't get the whole story," Edward paused a moment as something in the rearview mirror caught his attention. After he was certain it was nothing of consequence, he continued his explanation. "All I got was that the headmaster said that it had to be you and no one else. While several of them did miss and were concerned for you, most of them spent the last two years searching for you because the headmaster told them that the only way they could defeat Voldemort was to find you."

"Great. Just great," Harry muttered as he leaned back against the cold leather of his seat.

A sudden involuntary shiver reminded Edward of the fact that Harry was soaking wet, sitting in a leather seat, and was in the grip of a walking block of ice. The vampire reached forward and turned the heater on in order to give the human some relief.

"So that's all I am to them."

The way Harry spoke broke Edward's heart. The only time the immortal had ever heard the human sound so heartbroken was when Edward had broken up with him in the awful, misguided, and ultimately doomed attempt to give Harry a chance at a safe and normal life.

As awful as it made him feel, there was a part of Edward that was satisfied with this turn of events. He didn't want to be, particularly with how depressed it made his husband. The idea that Harry was now willing to cut all of his ties to his former life was darkly satisfying. But as alluring as the idea was, Edward could never bring himself to allow his lover to suffer so.

"They weren't all thinking like that. Your godfather, for instance, was far more interested in the fact that you were alive and well. As was Ronald Weasley," Edward said in an attempt to ease Harry's pain.

"Yeah, but they both seemed to like the idea of me being a prisoner."

"They're scared. They're scared that there may be nothing they can do to stop Voldemort," Edward explained.

"And that suddenly gives them the right to kidnap people?" Harry asked hotly.

"Of course not," the bronze-haired vampire replied placatingly. "I'm in no way defending what just transpired, but I would like for you to understand why it happened the way it did. Desperate people often do things that they would never do or even condone under normal circumstances."

Harry blew an angry breath out of his mouth and let his eyes slip shut. "I guess it doesn't really matter anyway. No matter what they want, this was never going to be anything more than a short visit. I would have preferred to leave things on better terms, but an end is an end."

"You should rest," Edward said softly. "I'll wake you at the first sign of trouble."

Harry wanted to refuse. He wanted to stay awake and be ready to fight and kick and scream if the situation demanded it. But he just felt so drained. And disappointed.

The teen didn't wake up until the very early hours of the next morning. He was surprised for two reasons.

First, he now had a small brace on his left wrist. It wasn't anything fancy or precise, but it was sufficient to keep him from moving his broken wrist.

The second thing that surprised him was that he wasn't in the same hotel room he'd been in the previous morning. In fact, he wasn't in the same hotel at all. The current hotel had much more in common with the roadside motels Harry had seen in the States than the palatial accommodations the Cullen family preferred to stay in. The style of the room didn't bother him, but the change in venue did leave the human with a cold feeling of dread.

Edward was on the phone when the human woke up. "Thank you, Alice. I appreciate it. But please hurry."

"What's going on?" Harry asked groggily as he sat up.

"The wizards work quickly. They weren't able to track us in the storm, so they've opted for a media blitz," the vampire said as he tossed a newspaper down on Harry's lap.

On the front page was a pair of artist sketches. One was of Harry and the other was of Edward. The images were remarkably accurate.

"I was able to return the rental car and check us out of the old hotel before we were discovered, but only just barely. A newscast announcing your 'abduction' began playing only a few minutes after I left the lobby. There is a good chance that the hotel staff has contacted the authorities. The wizards probably know my name and your alias by now," the vampire explained grimly.

Harry cursed softly as he brought his legs up to his chest. Things were going from bad to worse.

"I've been keeping a close eye on the staff at this establishment and none of them suspect anything yet. It helps that I've made damn sure none of them have seen you. But we can't stay here for long. Alice is working on our travel arrangements. A private jet will be taking us from a nearby countryside airfield to Italy. We'll be able to fly back to the States from there," Edward explained.

"But how? There's no way we can use our passports without setting off red flags."

"Actually, we won't have any difficulty once we reach Italy," Edward assured his husband.

"Why not?"

"The Volturi are going to help us."

"What?" Harry was barely able to keep himself from shouting at the mention of the infamous Italian coven.

"Carlisle has been in contact with them. They have a great deal of pull in Italy. They are old friends of Carlisle and owe us a favor for taking care of Victoria, so they have agreed to help us return to the States. Besides, they want to see the latest addition to our coven."

"Oh goody," the human mumbled. "I get to meet the largest, most powerful coven of vampires. A coven that will think of me as a walking appetizer."

"It's our best option," Edward replied in a frustrated tone.

Harry realized that the uncomfortable experience of meeting the Volturi was a small price to pay when measured against the massive problems that he had once again created for Edward. "Sorry. I just . . . This whole situation is . . ."

"I know," the vampire said quietly as he crossed the room to join Harry on the bed.

Edward stretched himself out next to Harry. The human mimicked the action a moment later. They remained next to one another in silence waiting for Alice to call. Harry was so used to the quiet that he jerked a little when the call finally came.

"Good news, I hope," Edward said as soon as he answered the call.

Harry couldn't hear what Alice was saying on the other end of the line, so he had no choice but to wait until the conversation was over to find out what the call entailed.

"The flight is all set up," Edward said as he put the phone away. "We leave here in one hour."

When they finally left their room and began the short walk to the airstrip—which really did appear to be in the middle of nowhere—Harry couldn't help but notice that there didn't appear to be any place for Edward to have dropped off the rental car.

"Edward, where did you return the car?"

"Back in London," the vampire replied as he began to haul their luggage towards the strip.

"So then how did we get here?"

"I carried you."

"You carried me?" Harry asked incredulously. "And the luggage?"

"It was an easy task. You underestimate the strength of vampires. Or else you greatly overestimate your own weight," Edward said blandly before turning to smile at his husband. "I'm joking. We took a cab. While I could have carried you and the luggage, I wouldn't risk your health by doing such a thing in the pouring rain."

"So you must be my passengers," a thickly accented French voice called out and interrupted.

Harry looked up to see an elderly looking man in a dark turtleneck waiting for them by what appeared to be the only plane at the field. The man looked very stern and stood rigidly next to a small white jet.

"Yes, we are," Edward called back. He turned to Harry and softly instructed the human to go ahead and board the plane.

Harry did as Edward told him to and walked swiftly over to the plane. The hatch had been opened to create a short set of steps into the passenger cabin. The human spared a look over his shoulder as he boarded the plane. He looked back just in time to see Edward hand the man a wad of cash.

The money was likely for keeping his mouth shut about the identities of his passengers, Harry realized.


	39. Chapter 39

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 39: Volterra**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Thirty-Eight – Volterra**

The flight to Italy was nerve-racking for the newlyweds. Although they were leaving one set of troubles behind, there was at least a decent chance that they were walking into a whole new set of them. It was a whole 'out of the frying pan and into the fire' scenario. Edward had been assured by his father that the Volturi had given their word not to harm Harry, but that didn't make him feel any better about parading the human in front of the oldest and most powerful of his kind.

The biggest unknown factor of the situation was how the Volturi would react to a wizard being brought into their presence. When Harry had first told Edward and his family about magic, it was the first time that any member of the Cullen coven had come face-to-face with a wizard. They had all heard of such beings' existance, but none had never actually met one.

Although the Volturi knew that wizards existed, how would they react to one being brought into their midst? How would the Volturi take the news that Edward had married and intended to turn a wizard?

Harry's instincts had originally told him that they should lie to the Volturi, but Edward informed him that that wasn't an option. Aro, one of the three leaders of the coven, possessed the power to read every thought an individual had ever had just by touching him or her. There was no way that Aro would not use that power on either Edward and Harry. He'd likely use it on both. Or at least he would likely attempt to.

The plane landed in a small, out of the way landing strip much like the one that it had taken off from. Neither Edward nor Harry spoke to the pilot as they gathered up their luggage and exited the plane. The pilot, likewise, made no move to interact with the pair.

A black car with tinted windows was waiting for them at the end of the runway. A man was leaning against the hood of the car. As Harry approached, he was able to take in the man's appearance and confirm his suspicion: the man was a vampire. He was tall and built very much like Emmett. His dark hair was cropped short and he had an olive-colored complexion that was poorly suited to being a vampire. Harry wondered what the man's skin would look like if the sun were to come out from behind the clouds.

"Felix," stiffly Edward greeted the vampire as he and his human husband came within a few meters of the car. Although Edward seemed at ease, his discomfort with the situation was broadcast by the way he kept himself between Harry and the Italian vampire.

"Edward," the Felix greeted in response. The vampire then turned away from Edward and gave the human a once-over look. "So, this is the mortal that did what so many before him failed to do: capture the interest of Edward Cullen."

"Harry, this is Felix. Felix, Harry," Edward introduced.

The vampire reached out his hand to shake the human's. Not wanting to be rude, Harry reached his own hand forward to accept Felix's offered hand. He was surprised when, rather than shaking his hand, Felix kissed it. Harry was used to such acts of affection from Edward, but the soft kiss that the other vampire placed on his hand left him more than a little bit unnerved.

Harry pulled his hand away quickly. Felix gave him a confident smile. The human didn't know what the smile was meant to convey, but he was fairly certain that vampire enjoyed making him uncomfortable. He was making fun of him, perhaps.

"My masters are awaiting you arrival," Felix said as he returned his attention to Edward.

"Then let's not keep them waiting any longer," Edward replied in an arctic tone.

Felix shot Harry another smile as he slid himself into the driver's seat of the car. Edward placed their luggage in the trunk before sitting in the back of the car with his husband.

Harry was able to enjoy the look of the Italian countryside for a few minutes. He had expected Felix to drive them directly into the village of Volterra, but he didn't. Instead, the immortal drove them to an outcropping of rocks a good half-kilometer from the city. Harry could see the large wall that surrounded the ancient buildings of Volterra from where Felix parked the car. The wizard wondered if they were to hike the rest of the barren road that led to the city.

The human watched Felix carefully for any sign of what they were to do next. As Felix moved towards one of the larger rocks near the car, Harry was able to make out the outline of a metal door. It was painted a tan color to match the rock in which it was embedded and so blended into the scenery quite well. The technique made for excellent camouflage.

"Just through here," Felix said as he pulled the thick door open.

Edward took hold of his husband's right hand and led him into the dark passageway beyond the metal door. It was a great relief to Harry to have Edward leading him by the hand because the tunnel was almost totally dark; there was no way he would have been able to navigate the underground passageway on his own.

The trio walked the dark passageway for quite a while. The trek was so long, in fact, that Harry was certain they'd gone right under the massive walls that enclosed Volterra from the outside world and were now under the city proper. At the end of the passageway was a small, rectangular room. Unlike the rest of tunnel, this room was lit up with two bright lights that were positioned on either side of the doors to an elevator.

Felix reached out and began to hit buttons on a small pad next to the doors. Harry was curious about the number combination, but not nearly curious enough to actually spy on the vampire's actions. The doors of the elevator opened as soon as Felix finished entering the code.

After the short trip in the elevator, the trio emerged in what appeared to be a reception area. The walls were paneled with dark wood and were lined with paintings of the countryside. The paintings were so realistic that an unobservant person might mistake them for windows. The floor was covered with a thick, dark green carpet that made Harry self-conscious about whether he'd gotten anything on his shoes during the travel through the dark tunnel. The most impressive sight in the room, however, was a set of large, ornate doors that were coated in what appeared to be gold leaf.

In the middle of the room was a tall, polished counter. To Harry's surprise, a tall human woman sat behind the counter. The receptionist looked up momentarily and her green eyes met Harry's. If she noticed his surprise at seeing a human in the stronghold of the self-proclaimed vampire royal family, she didn't show it; she just returned to whatever work she was doing as if she hadn't seen Harry at all.

The mortal boy sent a momentary questioning look to Edward. His husband gave Harry a tight smile that promised he'd explain the woman's presence later.

The human had expected that the leaders of the Volturi would be behind the golden doors. Instead, Felix led Harry and Edward down a hall in the opposite direction. The Italian vampire stopped at what Harry believed to be a totally random spot in the hallway and removed a piece of the wood paneling to reveal another dark passage.

This passage was only a few meters in length. It opened almost immediately into a perfectly circular stone room. The room was two stories high and had large window slits cut into the top few feet of the walls. The room was dark and fairly plain; other than the window slits in the top of the walls, the only things noticeable in the room were three massive throne-like chairs pushed against the wall opposite of the entrance and a large drain in the center of the floor. The circular room suddenly struck Harry as a perverse version of the round meadow in which Harry and Edward were married only a few weeks before.

The room was not empty. There were about a dozen or so vampires milling about. They were all dressed inconspicuously; the men wore white shirts and dark pants while the women wore summer dresses. The vampires that were walking the floor and intereacting with one another were not the ones that caught Harry's attention, however. His eyes were fixed on the three vampires that sat upon the thrones.

Carlisle had a number of paintings in his home office. Edward and his father had shown them to Harry once and used them to tell the story of Carlisle's life. One of those paintings related to the vampire patriarch's time in Volterra. In the painting, there were four figures that he identified as Aro, Marcus, Caius, and himself. Based on the identifications Carlisle had made at that time and a few other tidbits of information about the three leaders of the Volturi he had picked up over the last two years, Harry was able to deduce who was whom among the three vampires on the thrones.

All three of the Volturi leaders had skin that was so ancient that it had become almost translucent—like the skin of an onion—and red eyes that were covered in a milky film. The crimson of their eyes revealed that they, unlike the Cullen and Denali covens, ate a diet of human blood. They also all three wore dark robes that reminded Harry of the robes worn by the Death Eaters who had answered Lord Voldemort's call on the night of his resurrection. Caius was off to the left of the room and was identifiable because of his long, almost white hair. Marcus was off to the right of room and had long, jet-black hair and a very bored expression. Aro, the unofficial leader of the trio, sat in the center.

Much like Marcus, Aro had long, jet-black hair. Despite this physical similarity, Harry was able to deduce that the vampire in the center was Aro because Edward had once told him that he always kept a young female vampire at his side. Because the vampire in the center was the only one sitting upon a throne that had any other vampire within an arms reach of himself, Harry determined that he must be Aro.

"Ah Edward," Aro called as soon as the group entered the room. "What a delight it is to see you."

The common vampires, as Harry was sure Aro thought of them, didn't acknowledge the arrival of the newcomers until after Aro called out. This struck the human as a bit pretentious considering the fact that there was no way in hell the vampires hadn't noticed his arrival beforehand.

"And this," Aro said with a flourish of his right hand, "must be the _new _Mr. Cullen. Harry, is it not?"

It took a moment for Harry to find his voice after seeing the ancient creature speaking. "Yes, sir."

Aro gave him a sickeningly sweet smile. "Such manners from a mortal. And-oh dear, it seems you've been damaged. Mortals are such fragile creatures," he said motioning towards Harry's broken wrist.

"Just an accident on our way out of Britain," Edward said.

"Yes, your father mentioned a bit of trouble with wizards," Aro said.

The other vampires in the room began trading nervous expressions at the mention of wizards.

"I wonder, Harry, could show me a bit of magic?" the ancient immortal asked.

"I don't have a wand," Harry replied nervously. He truly did not want to offend the vampire, but had no way of fulfilling his request.

"Oh, that's quite alright, my boy. There is still a way for me to see you do a few spells. All you have to do is take my hand."

Harry shot a worried glance to his husband. They both knew it was a distinct possibility that Aro would insist on touching Harry and thereby learning every thought the boy had ever had. Their anxiety about this possibility was two-fold. First, there was the general worry about Aro prying into Harry's life in such a way. The second concern related to how the vampire would react if he, like Edward, could not discern Harry's thoughts.

"Come now, there is no need to be nervous. If you'd like, I can demonstrate with someone else first. Felix!"

Dutifully, Felix moved from his place next to Edward and crossed the room to his master. The younger vampire extended his hand and allowed Aro to take hold. The older vampire closed his eyes as every thought that Felix had ever had became an open book to him. When he was finished, Aro gave Felix a playful glare before shifting his attention to Harry.

To Harry's great relief, he did not have to cross the room full of vampires by himself. Edward walked with him every step of the way.

Not wanting to risk offending the vampire, the human managed to keep himself from dwelling on the Aro's frightening visage. Plucking up his courage, he reached his hand out and let the vampire take hold.

Aro closed his eyes while he held onto Harry's hand with his cold hand. Several times Harry thought he could the vampire muttering to himself. A smile slowly spread across the ancient vampire's face and he released Harry.

"Fascinating, truly fascinating. I am amazed at the power such delicate creatures as yourself can possess. And the self-control _you_ possess to have gone so long without wielding it," Aro said after he released the human.

"You could read my thoughts?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Yes, it would appear that whatever interference prevents Edward from reading your thoughts only blocks what you are thinking at the moment. Or perhaps Edward's gift just isn't as piercing as my own. Either way, your memories are an open book to me. After looking at you memories, I must say that I understand your relationship with Edward much better. I had originally thought you were just some greedy wizard coveting immortality. But the sheer reverence and adoration you have for your relationship with him. The love you have for Edward. Well, it surprises me. Truly, reading your mind has been a priceless experience."

Harry couldn't help himself from looking over at Edward to see his reaction to Aro's words. There was a look on his husband's face that spoke of deep satisfaction and contentment.

"Now," Aro said as he clapped his hands together. "On to business. Carlisle tells me that you've had a little trouble in Britain with the local wizards. They want you to fight for them, but you'd much rather leave all of that messiness behind you. You are much more concerned with the future than with their present."

"That's correct," Edward answered. "We are trying to get back home so that we can make the final arrangements for Harry's transformation."

"Yes, yes, a very important step in your relationship, to be sure. There is just one little catch, however."

"A catch?" Edward asked.

Aro reached into his black robe and pulled out a heavy piece of parchment. "I have recently received a letter from a 'Lord Voldemort.'"


	40. Chapter 40

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 40: The Volturi's Command**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Thirty-Nine – The Volturi's Command**

Harry didn't have long to agonize over the contents of the letter because Aro continued to speak without missing a beat.

"He is offering an alliance. In return for our assistance in his war against his enemies, he will offer us . . ." The vampire trailed for a moment to open the folded parchment so that he could read Lord Voldemort's exact words aloud. "Where is it? Ah, here. He is offering us 'the rights and privileges that have been long denied vampires by the Ministries of Magic.'"

The smile and seemingly carefree attitude that Aro had maintained throughout the meeting quickly transformed into a sneer. The change was so quick that Harry thought the vampire's face would tear like an aged and delicate piece of paper being crumpled haphazardly. "The arrogance of that wizard," the vampire elder spat in disgust. "To write to me as if he were my kinsman or equal. To dare think that he could possibly offer us something that we do not already possess or cannot command."

Aro crumpled the thick parchment up and tossed it onto the floor by Harry's feet. A wave of relief filled the boy at the knowledge that the Volturi had no intention of allying themselves with his old enemy. His relief, however, was short-lived.

"Still, this correspondence raises several issues. Ones which _you_ will address, Harry."

"And what issue would that be?" Harry asked nervously.

"This 'Lord Voldemort' poses no significant threat to this coven. His magic and supporters are ill-suited for a war with the masters of this world," the dark-haired vampire began.

Harry wondered if Aro truly believed that, or if this bravado was for the mortal's benefit.

"But, this wizard can cause us some mild discomfort. He is not a threat to the Volturi, but he is a threat to Volterra. And we do not take threats to our city very lightly, young one. This wizard must be dealt with. And it is you who will deal with him."

"You want me to defeat Voldemort?" the human asked.

"Yes," Aro said.

Harry swallowed thickly before daring to ask another question. "And if I can't do it?"

"You will," Caius spoke up for the first time. "You will kill Voldemort or we will smash your new coven and the Cullen name into oblivion."

"You promised Carlisle that no harm would come to Harry," Edward protested. "Throwing him at a murderous wizard constitutes harm by just about anyone's definition."

"Do not," Aro began dangerously, "think to lecture me about the promises I've made, boy. I promised my old friend that no harm would come to your husband at the hands of the Volturi and that I would help the two of you to return to your home. And I shall. You will be back in America in few hours."

"I'll do what you want, but please leave the family out of this. This is my fight, not theirs," Harry said in a desperate attempt to diminish Aro's ire.

The apparent leader of the Volturi returned his attention to the human. "No. From what I've seen of your life, you are the self-sacrificing type. The fear of your own death is insufficient to motivate you to kill this wizard; you will try hard, but not hard enough. By imperiling your family, I have ensured that there is no limitation on what lengths you will go to in order to succeed. If you fail to kill Voldemort, you will be made to watch as your husband and his family die."

"But it's an impossible task. I haven't done magic in years. There is no way that I can defeat Voldemort in just a few hours time," Harry pointed out.

"I never said that you would have to destroy this so-called 'lord' before I will return you to your family. I have seen you memories, after all. Sending you to face the wizard as you are would only result in your death. It would gain my coven nothing. Therefore, I will give you until the first day of the new year to kill your prey. In the time between now and then, you may train in your mystical ways or you may become an immortal yourself and use the advantages that the transformation will give you in order to succeed in your mission. But we will come for you as soon as the deadline has passed and I will read your memories. Do not think to hide, because we will find you. And if you have not succeeded, then your family will pay the price."

The room was silent after that. Harry looked around the room and met the gazes of the dozen or so immortals that were watching the exchange. They all looked very pleased at the way Harry and Edward were made to squirm. Except for Marcus, who just looked bored.

"If there is nothing else," Edward said coolly, "Harry and I will take our leave."

"Are you sure you won't stay for dinner?" Aro asked in his once again cheerful tone. "No, I suppose you won't. Your preferences would be ill-met here. And I'm sure you're anxious to return home. Felix, please escort our guests back to the airfield."

Although it had been phrased as a request, Harry had no doubt that Aro had actually issued a command. Felix bowed his head reverently to his master before motioning for Edward and Harry to follow him back out through the small stone antechamber that they had entered through. The human was just about to cross the threshold when he heard Aro call to him once again.

"Oh, and Harry," the vampire began, "I've taken the liberty of having a few wedding presents added to your luggage. Just small tokens, really, but I hope you enjoy them."

Harry clenched his jaw tightly in order to prevent himself from replying to the vampire with an insult. It was only the concern for how the Volturi would retalitate against his love that forced Harry to turn, smile at the monster—for Aro truly was a monster in Harry's eyes—and say a word of thanks.

Although no one spoke during the walk back through the dark labyrinth beneath Volterra, the trip seemed to be very short. Harry's mind was racing as he fixated on the command he'd been given. It was ludicrous. This wasn't a situation of 'kill or be killed,' it was a 'kill or have everything he'd cared about killed' situation.

Edward and Harry were silent through the entire trip back to the airfield. The silence unnerved the human. In the pit of his stomach he feared what Edward was thinking. Did he blame Harry for bringing yet another bout of misfortune on his family? Did he realize, at a last, what a curse Harry was and desire to be rid of him?

After arriving at the airfield, Edward and Harry silently collected their luggage from the trunk of the car and boarded the plane. They didn't even bother to give Felix any thanks or goodbyes before they departed.

After boarding the plane, Harry took a moment to examine his surroundings before taking a seat. The plane that he'd traveled to Italy on was small and its interior had gone many years without sufficient upkeep. The second plane, by comparison, was roomy and elegant. It was everything that one would expect the royal family of the vampire world to travel in. Despite the upscale nature of the plane, Harry still felt the need to make sure that nothing was about to jump out at him.

"What are you looking for?" Edward asked as his husband continued to look around the cabin.

"Just making sure that they didn't leave any 'in flight snacks.' I'd really hate to wake up somewhere over the Atlantic because a bound and gagged human came falling out of an overhead compartment or something."

Edward chuckled at Harry's statement as he took a seat. "First of all, there aren't any overhead compartments. Second, if there was a human other than the pilot present, I'd let you know."

Satisfied, Harry took the seat next to Edward's. The human sighed heavily before laying his head back against the padded cushion that covered the seat's head. He waited until after the plane had taken off to begin his apologies. "I'm so sorry."

"For what?" Edward asked.

"Don't pretend that this isn't my fault, because it is. You didn't want me to go back to Britain, but I insisted. And now, as a result of that stubbornness, I've put you and your family in great danger."

"_Our_ family," Edward corrected gently. "You are a Cullen now, remember?"

Harry turned his head to look at his husband. "I've put _our_ family in danger then."

"No you didn't, Voldemort did."

The human shook his head. "You can't argue away my blame in this, Edward. It was my decision to go to Britain that led to all of this. If I hadn't gone, then we wouldn't have been forced to rely on the Volturi to get home. They wouldn't have been able to force me into doing this."

"They were going to anyway. Our predicament was just a convenient way to bring the matter up. Aro has intended to force you to fight Voldemort since the letter from Voldemort was delivered."

"How do you know that?" Harry asked.

"Despite their power, the members of the Volturi are just as susceptible to my power as any other vampire. I read what they were thinking the entire time we were meeting with them. That letter was hand delivered to them a few weeks ago by one of Voldemort's servants. Evidently, the Death Eater hadn't done his homework because he allowed Aro to come into physical contact with him when he received the letter."

"So Aro knows everything that the Death Eater knew," Harry realized.

"Precisely. Voldemort wants the support of the vampires in order to make sure that he doesn't just beat Dumbledore. He wants to completely crush any opposition. The Death Eater knew that if the Volturi refused Voldemort's offer, that the next step would be a magical assault on Volterra and its human population."

"But that doesn't make any sense. Aro made it sound like they were extremely protective of their city. If the Death Eaters attacked, they'd be making themselves targets."

"The plan would be to make Dumbledore's people—the Order of the Phoenix— and the Ministry of Magic the targets. The Death Eaters planned on framing their enemies so that the Volturi would attack them in revenge. And because the Volturi would have no other interest in wizarding affairs, they'd leave once they were finished. If the Volturi refused an outright alliance with Voldemort, then he planned on tricking them into doing his dirty work for him," Edward explained.

"Great," Harry said dejectedly. "So the Volturi decided that they need to destroy Voldemort because he's a threat to Volterra. And a wizard has just married into a family of vampires, so they've got the perfect person to send after him."

"It's a bit more than that, I'm afraid. I could hear Aro thinking about some of the memories he'd read from the Death Eater. They related to a conversation the Death Eater had had that indicated that you were the only one who could defeat Voldemort and how important it was, therefore, that you not re-enter the war."

Harry looked at Edward in shock. "This is weird. Both Dumbledore's people and the Death Eaters are convinced that I'm the only one that can defeat Voldemort. Yeah, we've got our history and I managed to beat him back a couple of times, but what threat could I possibly pose? Dumbledore is supposed to be the only person that Voldemort has ever feared."

"Either Aro doesn't know the answer or he didn't think about it while I was nearby. Either way, there is a piece to this puzzle that we're missing. I'm certain that there is one crucial bit of information that would explain everything. If only I'd been able to read Dumbledore's thoughts . . ." the immortal lamented.

"We've got four months to figure it out," Harry said. "The question is: how do we go about this?"

Edward watched his husband very carefully as he tried to deduce what dark places his mind was taking him to. "You're considering asking Dumbledore for help," he concluded.

"Yes, I am."

"After everything he's put us through?"

"What choice do I have?" Harry asked in desperation. "I know next to nothing about what Voldemort is doing, where he is, or what he's capable of. And like you pointed out, we're missing something here. Something big. And I'd be willing to bet all of the gold in Gringott's that Dumbledore knows the answer. He has to. Why else would he be so hell-bent on making me fight?"

"I don't disagree that he's a potential resource, but we have to be careful about this. Dumbledore's not working on the same timeline we are. He said that it would take you until after the Christmas holdiays just to catch up to your former classmates. Even if he can prepare you to fight Voldemort in time, he has no real reason to," Edward argued. "And you can't risk telling him why you need to face Voldemort before the new year. If you do, he'll be able to use it against you. Every time you try to do anything he doesn't approve of, he'll just threaten to slow down your training to make sure you're too late to meet the Volturi's deadline. You could turn yourself into his slave."

"Damn it!" Harry shouted as he smacked his hands on the armrest of his chair. He knew Edward was right. "We need Dumbledore, but we can't risk him knowing about the deadline. And I have no way of knowing what he'll do if I become a vampire before going to see him. Yeah, he's pretty tolerant of most non-humans, but I've never actually heard him say anything about vampires."

"Whatever you decide on, it's a gamble," Edward said solemnly.

"You mean whatever _we_ decide on," Harry countered. "Like you said, I'm part of the Cullen family now. And however we go about this, it will affect the entire family."

"Glad to see the message is finally sinking in."


	41. Chapter 41

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 41: A Short Return**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Forty – A Short Return**

Harry and Edward discussed their options for several hours before the human fell asleep. Although Harry woke up for brief periods of time after the plane touched down in New York to refuel, he was sound asleep again in no time. It wasn't until after they arrived in Seattle that he woke up and remained awake for any appreciable length of time.

The wizard kept expecting to have a run-in with security, but no such confrontation ever came. They showed their passports at the appropriate time, but there was no problem at all. The far-reaching influence of Volturi, it appeared, did the trick to keep Harry and Edward safe from their magically-inclined pursuers.

The rest of the Cullen family was waiting for the newlyweds just beyond the security checkpoint. Alice was the first to reach Harry and engulfed the boy in a strong hug. Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie followed closely behind the seer. Esme and Carlisle waited until after their children had finished harassing Harry to welcome their new son home.

At Edward's insistence, the issue of Aro's command was left alone for the time being. There would be plenty of time to discuss the matter, but he felt that there was no need to ruin the reunion; Harry agreed. As a result, the car ride back to Forks was instead filled with lengthy discussions about Isle Esme. Although the conversation was appropriately limited to the non-sexual aspects of the honeymoon, Emmett managed to get in a fair amount teasing about the wedding night.

After arriving back at the Cullen household, Harry revealed the contents of his encounter with Aro in a very blunt manner. After allowing Carlisle to express his shock and dismay that his old friend would threaten his family, the group began to discuss the problem like rational adults.

"I say we kill Aro," Emmett suggested.

"Emmett, this is no time for joking," Esme chastised.

"Who's joking?"

"Even if we killed Aro, the rest of the Volturi would come after us," Jasper pointed out. "And there is no way we can withstand an assault by the entire coven."

"Can't we run?" Rosalie suggested. She, better than anyone else present, knew the toll it could take on Harry's soul to be forced to take Voldemort's life. "If we can hide ourselves away until after the wizarding war is over, maybe the Volturi won't care anymore."

"They hold grudges for a very long time," Alice countered. "And besides that, where could we possibly run to? Demetri would find us."

Demetri, Harry knew, was a member of the Volturi guard. He possessed the supernatural ability to track anyone he had ever been in the presence of. Edward had once described Demetri's ability to track individuals as him 'being drawn to the tenor of one's mind.' In other words, he got a feel for an individual's mind just by being near them. Once he'd been exposed to that mind, he could track it anywhere in the world. Edward confirmed that Demetri was one of the vampires that had been present in Volterra; therefore, the vampire had already gotten the feel for both Harry and Edward's minds. If they ran, he would find them.

"Edward and I discussed this for hours," Harry said. "I have to kill Voldemort. There is no other way out of this but to just go through it."

"Do you have any sort of plan?" Esme asked him in a worried tone.

"We're going ahead with part of what we intended to do anyway. We're going to complete the move to Alaska and turn Harry. He'll stand a better chance against Voldemort with the enhanced abilities of a vampire than he would with a few final months of training as a wizard," Edward answered for his husband.

"That makes sense," Jasper noted. "Harry will be stronger, faster, and more durable. Based on your account of the incident in the home of the Weasley family, Harry should also be far more resilient to certain spells."

"And he'll be a natural predator," Rosalie pointed out somewhat reluctantly.

"But it doesn't solve all of the problems associated with this situation," Jasper continued after Rosalie's interruption. "You still have no idea where Volemort is. Tracking a wizard down will be difficult."

"We've been talking about that as well," the human said. "We have two different ideas on how to handle it. One is that we try and find a tracker vampire to do the finding for us. The other idea is that we ally ourselves with Dumbledore."

"Have you lost your friggin' mind?" Emmett demanded. "You want to team up with the guy that put some serious thought into wiping your memory?"

"It's not about what I want, Emmett. It's about what has to be done."

"But wizards hate vampires," the curly-headed vampire argued. "What makes you think he'll work with you after you've been changed?"

Edward let out a frustrated growl before responding to his brother. "Trying to work with Dumbledore before Harry has been changed isn't an option. Dumbledore will just stick to his strategy of training Harry as a wizard; he won't be ready in time. The old wizard might find out the deadline and hold that over Harry's head in order to compel him to do things he doesn't want to, like agreeing to something that will force him to stay even after Voldemort is defeated. Something like what compelled him to compete in that tournament."

"After the transformation, Dumbledore will have to work with Harry on Harry's terms," Carlisle said as he followed Edward's reasoning to its logical extension. "Harry will likely be too strong, too fast, and too aware for Dumbledore to bewitch. No human has reflexes faster than a vampire, after all. Without the ability to force Harry to do things his way, Dumbledore will be forced to negotiate. As long as he does not know of our deadline, Harry can use the threat of disappearing forever to force Dumbledore to do things his way," the doctor said calmly. It was the first time he'd spoken since learning that his old friends had threatened his family.

"But what of their prejudices?" Emmett steered the conversation back to his earlier point.

"Dumbledore has always been pretty tolerant. I don't know how he feels about vampires specifically, but he doesn't have a problem with werewolves. I mean, he hired one to teach in a school full of kids during my third year at Hogwarts. Besides, in the end, it won't really matter if he hates vampires or not. Both Dumbledore and Voldemort seem to be convinced that I'm the only one that can bring Voldemort down. His options will be to either work with me or lose the war. His personal feelings are irrelevant."

Emmett didn't look convinced, but Harry knew he'd go along with the plan.

"And the other practical elements of all of this?" Esme asked. "The headmaster is at Hogwarts and you've no idea where that is."

"The plan is still a work in progress," Edward confessed to his adoptive mother. "But Harry and I will cross that bridge when we come to it."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Alice asked as she narrowed her eyes.

"It means that this is my fight," Harry answered. "I _will_ kill Voldemort before the deadline, don't you worry about that. But I'm not going to risk the rest of you in the meantime."

"After Harry's transformation and a few weeks of getting him acclimated to the change, he and I are leaving for Britain together. Without the rest of you," Edward finished.

"Not a chance in hell," Emmett protested.

"I have to agree with Emmett. We cannot possibly allow you to do this without us," Jasper concurred.

"I'm not going to let you fight _another_ war for me," Harry argued back.

"Tough, darling. You're one of the family now. We stick together, no matter what," Rosalie said as she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Damn straight," Alice said as she stood up from he seat and pumped her fist in the air in a very Emmett-like way.

Harry looked pleadingly at Esme and Carlisle, desperately hoping that they would put a stop to this nonsense.

"You know what they say, Harry. 'You don't just get a husband, you get a whole circus.'" Esme joked as Carlisle nodded his head in agreement.

For most of the Cullen family, the rest of the evening was filled with scheming. The family needed to figure out how to make contact with the Order of Phoenix. A major snag in the entire affair was that it would be extremely difficult for Harry to be near any allied wizards in the first few months after his transformation. There was a strong possibility that he would succumb to his vampiric urges and attempt to rip Dumbledore's throat out the moment he got within a few dozen meters of the old wizard.

Harry didn't stick around for long after he had resigned himself to the fact that the entire family considered this to be their fight. After Jasper took over as the chief strategist of things, Edward drove the human back to his the house that had been his home for the past two years so that he could pack up the few belongings that he wanted to take with him.

Most of the small rental house was filled with items that the human would neither need nor want after he became a vampire. Items like dishes and eating utensils would go unused in a household of vampires. Such things weren't even needed as props to help maintain the illusion of being human because the Cullen family already had everything they could possibly need. So most of what he collected was pictures and other mementos of his time in Forks.

The entire process of packing up his mortal life could have been accomplished in a half hour, but it took Harry all night. Every time he picked up an item, he insisted on discussing its importance with Edward. Every memory was relived. The vampire learned more about the depths of Harry's friendship with the La Push shapeshifters in that night than he had in all of the days and nights of their relationship combined.

Once everything was packed up in Edward's car, the vampire drove away with the items so that they could be added to the pile at the Cullen home that the movers were to collect. Harry thought it was odd that Edward left him alone at his old house—particularly given the fact that he had no way of going anywhere except on foot—but he wasn't left wondering for very long; Leah and Jacob arrived only a few short minutes later. Edward had obviously smelled the shapeshifters waiting for the chance to see their friend.

"So this is what someone who is married to a vampire looks like," Leah said as she walked through the door. She gave Harry a one-armed hug as she moved to stand next to him.

"Can you imagine having to deal with that smell all the time?" Jacob joked with his packmate as he too gave Harry a friendly hug.

"It's not so bad. I was able to handle your smell for God knows how long," Harry joked back.

"Wow, look at that. Sleeping with a vampire for less than a month and he's already siding with them in this little feud of ours," the male shapeshifter retorted.

"Oh, I don't think your smell has anything to do being a werewolf, Jake," Harry retorted.

Leah got a pretty big kick out of that joke and so had a hearty laugh at her alpha's expense.

"So, when are the movers coming for all of this stuff?" Jacob asked once Leah's laughter had subsided.

"Oh, I've already sent my stuff along with Edward. The rest of this stuff is up for grabs."

"'Up for grabs'?" Leah questioned.

"Yeah. I'm not going to need any of it anymore, so it's free for whoever wants it. Whatever's left at the end of the week becomes the property of the landlord."

The three friends stood in quiet little house for a few minutes. Harry walked around trying to make sure he hadn't missed anything while Leah and Jacob checked to see if there was anything they wanted to take. Leah didn't find anything she wanted, but Jacob called 'dibbs' on the television from Harry's bedroom.

"It's really hard for me to believe I won't be living here anymore," the human said quietly as he placed a hand on the overstuffed recliner in the living room. The chair was a source of many mixed feelings for Harry. He had spent countless days and nights in the chair when he was ill. Although it reminded him of his cancer, it also reminded him of how safe and warm he'd felt in the house.

"It's really hard for me to believe you won't be living at all anymore," Jacob muttered.

Harry turned to Jacob. "It'll still be me. I'll just be able to hold my own against you the next time we arm wrestle."

Neither of the shapeshifters found Harry's joke to be the least bit amusing. The two shapeshifters looked morose, both at the thought of Harry moving away and at the thought that he was about to end his mortal life.

"You're the best friend I've ever had," Leah confessed. Her voice was choked and Harry strongly suspected that she was crying, but he couldn't tell for sure. She'd turned her head away from him and was looking out the front window of the house.

"I, uh, I didn't expect this town to change my life as much as it did," Harry said, his eyes beginning to burn. "It was destiny, though. I've thought that for a long time, but I know it now for sure. It was a one in a million chance that I would leave my aunt and uncle's house when I did. If I had been a few seconds later . . . None of this would have happened. I would have stayed there and gone back to school in the fall. But I didn't. I left at the perfect moment and then I came here, to this seemingly inconsequential town that the owls avoided. And I found the love of my life, a new family, and some of the greatest people I could have ever hoped to meet. I don't have any regrets about what I'm gonna do. But at the same time, I don't know what I'm gonna do without you."

Leah turned back around before closing the few steps between herself and Harry. She gave the boy the fiercest hug that she could. Jacob joined in a few seconds letter. The alpha, by comparison to Leah, was quiet in his sorrow.

The trio stood together in the house that had been Harry's refuge from his past for two years. It had been his quiet little sanctuary away from dark lords and sorcery. He'd lived in the little home during some of the best and worst times of his life. He'd seen mornings when he didn't want to get out of bed and nights that he was certain would be his last. He'd seen heartache and love and a million other extremes there, and he was going to miss it.

More than the house, though, he was going to miss his friends. He knew that they would remain his friends despite the move and his transformation. And he also knew that they would never lose touch as long the two shapeshifters were alive. But Harry had no delusions about the fact that things between them were about to change radically.

The friends allowed themselves to hold on to one another for good long while as they mourned the ending of one stage in their lives. But eventually, they let go and moved forward to face whatever came next.


	42. Chapter 42

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 42: The Night Before My Death**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Forty-One – The Night Before My Death**

The decision to leave Jacob and Leah in the dark about the command issued by the Volturi wasn't a difficult one for Harry to make. He didn't like the idea that the rest of his family was being targeted, so he'd be damned if he was going to allow Jacob and his pack to be dragged into the mess as well. Still, the human's thoughts lingered on his two shapeshifter friends all throughout the trip to Alaska.

After arriving in Denali, Edward insisted on blindfolding Harry so that he could surprise his husband with the new house. Harry thought that it was a bit silly considering he had already seen pictures of the house as well as its floorplans. Regardless, the dark-haired teen went along with it anyway, if only to make his husband happy.

"We there yet?" Harry asked no fewer than a dozen times as Edward's newest car—a large sports utility vehicle that was far better suited to the icier road conditions of their new hometown than his old Volvo was—traveled through Denali.

"Just a bit further," Edward replied every time.

The trek through Denali took longer than Harry would have expected. The length of the car ride meant that the new house must be outside of the town, he reasoned. It made sense considering how much difficulty Harry would have being around humans for the foreseeable future.

Almost twenty minutes after the vampire put the blindfold over Harry's eyes, the car was parked. Edward carefully helped Harry out of the passenger seat and then positioned him in the exact spot he wanted him to be in when he got his first look at their new home.

"Ready?" Edward asked. The level of excitement in his voice thrilled Harry and reminded him of Jacob on the shapeshifter's birthday.

"Yes."

The immortal removed the blindfold and allowed Harry to get a look at his new home. It took several seconds for the human's eyes to adjust to the change in light, but when they did, he was left momentarily speechless. Harry wasn't sure if it was because the house actually looked different than it had in the pictures or if it was just the experience of seeing it in real life and knowing that it was his _home_, but either way, the house seemed so much more spectacular than he'd anticipated.

The house was two stories tall and of a far more traditional design than the Cullen home that was located outside of Forks. Where the Forks home had been a combination of a stately old manor and sleek, modern remodeling, the Denali home was a perfect country home nestled back into a forest of evergreen.

"Our home," Harry said quietly after a bit. He turned and found Edward smiling broadly at him. "You going to give me the grand tour?"

"Of course," Edward replied in a very suave manner.

The vampire took his human husband's hand and led him up the two wooden steps that led to the front porch and, after unlocking the front door, escorted him inside. The house had high ceilings and large, open spaces. It was already furnished in a combination of both Edward and Harry's styles. The vampire's influence could be seen in the black leather couch that was positioned across from a plasma screen television in the living room while the human's tastes were visible in the overstuffed armchairs in the sitting room just off of the bedroom.

It was while being shown the bedroom—a room that took up the vast majority of the second floor—that something occurred to Harry.

"There's only one bedroom," the human pointed out.

"Yes," Edward said. He was looking at Harry as if he had no idea where his husband's concern was coming from.

"Well, how will the whole family make do with only one bedroom? I mean, I know vampires don't need to sleep, but are we going to have to, you know, do things in shifts?"

Edward looked blankly at Harry for a moment before he burst out laughing at the question.

"What?" Harry asked indignantly.

"I'm sorry, my love, but I thought you knew. This is _our_ house: yours and mine. The rest of the family is living in the old Cullen house a few miles down the road."

"Wait, you mean that there's a second Cullen house here?"

"Of course," Edward replied with a smile. He bent down and gave Harry a quick kiss before continuing. "The old house is where my family resided when we were here about a half-century ago. It is at the halfway point between this house and the house in which Tanya and her family live."

"Oh," Harry said as he watched Edward move to the window and begin pointing off into the distance. "So, we don't have to worry about our privacy here?"

"No," Edward responded. One of the reasons he wanted to live with Harry away from the rest of the family was so that his husband could acclimate himself to the idea of such intimacy no longer being as private an affair because of the enhanced senses of those around him. The vampire continued to look out the window. "The trees are obstructing my view of the house, but I believe that the others should have arrived there by now."

Harry moved forward to join his husband in looking out the window. "It's wonderful, Edward. Perfect, in fact."

"I'm glad you like it. It is, after all, a bit of a belated birthday present. I would be most disappointed if it didn't meet with your approval."

"So, when should we expect the others to show up here?"

"Unless you want them to come over, you won't see them until after your change. Carlisle plans to arrive at ten o'clock to help me get the transformation started. Because I will need to . . . bite you . . . he is the only one with the willpower to be present."

"Tomorrow," Harry said softly. "It's weird. This is the last night I'm going to be a human. Tomorrow and everyday after are all going to stretch on into a great eternity for me, aren't they?"

"They will," Edward confirmed. "You won't think of it the way you do now, though. As a human, you grow tired from remaining awake too long and that affects the way in which you perceive the passage of time. You won't tire like that as a vampire. Never sleeping again is a much different concept."

"It's hard for me to imagine."

"It is just as hard for me to think about needing to sleep. I look back and I think of those hours as wasted time because I don't remember what it is like to be tired. Or to sleep or dream. Except for the occasion daydream, of course."

"Oh?"

"What can I say, I spent a great deal of time fantasizing about you during our classes together."

Harry leaned against his husband's side as they continued to watch the scenery from the bedroom window. "Speaking of fantasies and not sleeping," the human practically purred as he entwined his fingers with Edward's.

The vampire allowed himself to be led to the bed by his human mate. "Any special requests?" Edward said casually as Harry pushed him down onto the mattress.

"Requests?" Harry asked with a chuckle.

"It is the last time we'll be doing this with you as a human," Edward pointed out. "I thought there might be something in particular you wanted to do."

Harry shot his husband a mischievous smile before draping his warm, human body over the cold form of the vampire. "Just make love to me; that's all I want."

It was some time before either spoke coherent words again. They drew things out for far longer than they ever had before. Their lovemaking was prolonged to the point that Harry thought there could be no greater agony in the world than the continued delay of his release. But the bone deep satisfaction that accompanied the completion of their activities made everything worth it.

Harry dozed off for a short while afterwards and woke some hours later to total darkness. He could feel the cold that radiated from his husband's body, but the sensation was oddly muted. It took several moments for the human's fuzzy mortal mind to comprehend that Edward had wrapped a thick blanket around him, presumably so that the vampire's cool skin would not disturb his sleep.

His coordination was poor in his sleepy state, but Harry managed to pull the blanket away so that he was flush against Edward's skin.

"Harry?" the vampire asked quietly.

"Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

"I much prefer to be touching my husband to being mummified in a blanket. The feeling of your skin is very . . . relaxing," Harry explained.

"You'll get cold."

"I don't mind the cold," Harry replied. Before Edward could protest further, Harry changed the subject. "What were you thinking about while I was asleep?"

Edward was quiet for a long moment before answering. "Your scent," he finally said.

Harry raised his head up and looked at where he was certain his husband's head was in the darkness. "My _scent_?"

"Yes. I love your scent. It is perfect. No two humans have exactly the same scent. And once a human turns into a vampire, their scent changes."

"So you're getting your fill of it while you can?" Harry asked with a playful smirk.

"Yes, I am. I denied myself the pleasure of your scent for quite a while, you know. First because I was stupid. And then because of the wolves."

Harry was amused at Edward's statement. He knew that the vampires had all had difficult coming near him after they'd returned to Forks. Harry hadn't understood at first, but he eventually discovered that the shapeshifters smell horrible to vampires. Every time Edward came close enough to Harry to smell him, he had held his breath. According to Rosalie, the entire family did the same thing. Not breathing in any of Harry's scent was a step taken by the vampires so that they could be closer to Harry. Ironically, it had also helped prevent them from discovering that Harry was undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

The human settled his head back down on Edward's chest. "So what do I smell like?" he asked curiously.

Edward craned his neck towards Harry's head and enhaled deeply. "Like a mixture of citrus and cinnamon."

Harry couldn't stop himself from laughing at that. "You make me sound like a candle. Or a pie."

"Well, you are good enough to eat."

"That," Harry said forcefully. "That right there is the corniest thing I've ever heard you say."

"I know. I apologize."

"Damn straight you apologize. I won't have my husband being some big lame-o."

"I think you should have to apologize for using the term 'lame-o.'" Edward joked.

"So, how will my scent change?"

"It will become sweeter," Edward answered. "You will still smell like you do now, but with a twist."

The pair enjoyed one another's silent company for another long stretch of time before Edward asked a question of his own. "Are you scared?"

"Yes," Harry answered truthfully.

"Carlisle will do everything he can to limit the pain involved," Edward assured.

"I know that. I'm just afraid of what I'll lose."

"What you'll lose? I didn't think you were overly upset about not sleeping or eating human food."

"I'm not," Harry said. "But there are other things I'm going to lose. You told me that I would lose some of my memories. That many of the things would become a blur."

"Not a blur, exactly," the immortal clarified. "Many of your memories will be less sharp, but they'll still be there. I believe that it is due to a change in perception. Vampire senses are so much more precise than human senses, that the old memories just seem dull. It is like comparing old television footage to real life. Your memories will be different, but they'll still be there."

"Unless I'm like Alice and I forget everything. She has no memories before waking up as a vampire."

"You won't lose everthing," Edward assured his husband.

"You don't know that," Harry muttered. "You know as well as I do that I could wake up after the transformation and have no idea who you are."

"If that happens, then I will gladly spend as much time as it takes helping you to remember."

"You better. Because you promised me forever," Harry pointed out almost childishly.

"And forever you shall have, my Harry."


	43. Chapter 43

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 43: The Fire**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Forty-Two – The Fire**

He'd been prepared as much as any human could possibly be prepared for what was to come. Harry had dreamed his last dream, eaten his last meal, and taken the time to explore the many splendors of his human senses with his husband. He was ready.

He understood that there would be pain involved. And he also understood that it would only be a temporary thing; he would survive the pain. Still, Harry had a very large knot in his stomach as the time for Carlisle's arrival approached.

The human was dressed in a dark blue dress shirt and black slacks. He'd liked the outfit from the moment he'd seen it on a mannequin in a Port Angeles storefront, but he'd had rarely gotten the chance to wear it. He skipped most dances and other school functions at Forks High and he had always preferred a quiet evening with Edward in the woods or at his house over a trip to anywhere that such an outfit would have appropriate to wear to. But he wore the outfit on his last morning as a human because it felt right to dress up a little when faced with such a monumental moment in one's life.

When Carlisle finally entered the home, Harry had a moment of panic. He was about to die, he realized. But that panic and fear melted away when he felt his husband place a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He remembered why he was doing this, and that knowledge made everything alright.

"Are you ready?" Carlisle asked without preamble as he walked into the home.

"Yes," Harry said. He desperately hoped that neither of the vampires could hear the trepidation in his voice.

"Where would you like to do this?"

"We were thinking that it would be best if he was changed in our bedroom," Edward answered. "Someplace familiar, so that he won't be frightened when he regains his awareness."

Carlisle nodded his head and followed as Edward and Harry led him up the stairs to the home's second floor. It occurred to Harry as they walked that this was Carlisle's first chance to see the house. He momentarily thought about using the excuse of giving the doctor the 'five-cent tour' to delay things, but he quickly squashed the idea.

The large bed had been made by Edward during the time Harry had spent in the shower that morning. The cream-colored bedspread was pulled out so taunt that Harry couldn't see a single wrinkle on its surface. It looked like it had when Harry had first seen it, except for the fact that the pillows were now piled up by the center of the headboard rather than spread out.

The human allowed himself to be led to the bed by his husband. It was a role reversal from the previous night when he'd been the one leading Edward to bed. Harry was positioned in the middle of the bed with his torso and head propped up by the small mountain of pillows. Once Harry was comfortable, Edward laid himself down on his side to his husband's right.

"Ready?" Edward asked quietly in Harry's ear.

Rather than answering Edward aloud, Harry turned to face his vampire, leaned over, and gave him a brief kiss. It was another one of the myriad of 'lasts' that Harry took pleasure in doing as a human.

Carlisle was quick to unbutton and then roll up the wizard's left sleeve. He felt for a good vein; it didn't take long. Harry had had so many injections into his left arm when he'd been ill that his veins were all very easy to locate. Harry silently wondered if the act of searching for the vein was necessary for Carlisle, or if the vampire was just going through the well-memorize motions.

As Carlisle prepared Harry's arm, Edward took the time to reach over and remove Harry's wrist brace. There was no longer a need for it. The morphine that was about to be injected into his veins would kill any pain he might feel and the vampire venom would heal the broken bone over the course of the next three days, just as it would any other injuries that Harry had. It might even correct his vision, but he didn't know for sure.

Once the vampiric physician had found the vein, he reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out large bottle of clear fluid and a syringe. "This will help you to relax. We know that the effects of the venom are quite painful, but we hope that this will eliminate or at least lessen your discomfort. But you should know, we have no way to be certain if it will work until we try it out. To our knowledge, it has never been tried before."

"I know," Harry said. "And thank you."

Carlisle nodded in recognition of Harry's gratitude and then filled the syringe with the clear fluid, tapped its side, and then held the small device needle-up and pushed the air bubbles out. He placed the end of the needle a few millimeters away from Harry's arm before asking, "Ready?"

Harry shook with momentary laughter. "If you people don't stop asking me that question, I'll die of old age before we get this thing started."

Carlisle smiled softly. "I'll take that to be a 'yes'."

The human was quick to turn his head away so as to not watch the injection. Despite all of his experience with being poked and prodded at, he was still very averse to needles. He kept his green eyes locked onto the amber ones of his husband as Carlisle injected the painkillers into his system.

There was a momentary pinch and then a slight burning sensation as the medication entered Harry's system. As the concoction pumped its way through his veins, Harry found it increasingly difficult to keep his eyes focused on his husband. Everything felt warm and comfortable and his eyelids were becoming so damn heavy.

He was vaguely aware of someone removing his glasses. Then there were people talking above him, but he couldn't tell who it was. If he'd been able to think clearly, he'd have known that Edward and Carlisle were the only other people in the room, but it was just so hard to think about such things. Or anything for that matter.

Cold fingers gently caressed Harry's neck as his head was tilted to the side. Those fingers were soon replaced by a pair of lips. The sensation tickled the human and he let out an involuntary sigh at the contact.

Edward gave his human husband several gentle kisses on the neck. He relished the feeling of the blood pumping through the veins just underneath Harry's skin. When he was certain that Harry was thoroughly anesthetized, he allowed his teeth to break the smooth, white skin.

Then, all Harry knew was pain. The world returned to Harry's senses with frightening clarity as red hot electricity sprung forth from that spot on his neck and filtered its way through the rest of his body.

He wanted to scream out. He wanted to open his eyes. He wanted to do something, anything to stop the pain. But he couldn't. The morphine worked, just not in the way Carlisle had either anticipated or hoped. Instead of suppressing the pain, it just suppressed Harry's ability to move or react. He was left paralyzed to suffer the agony of the venom.

As the fire raged throughout the boy's body, he slowly adjusted to the pain. That in no way meant that he was able to completely ignore the pain, but he was eventually able to focus on something else. He could hear Edward breathing to his right. And he could feel the vampire's hand holding on to his own. At random intervals, the vampire would gently squeeze the human's hand. Harry knew that those intervals were random because he eventually started to count the seconds between the squeezes. He had nothing else to do, after all.

The effects of the morphine slowly faded from his system. He knew that he could move if he wanted, but he decided not to because, at some point during his torture, he'd become grateful for the paralyzing effects of the drugs. He would never want to hurt Edward by allowing him to know of the pain and agony that his bite had caused.

After a few hours had passed, Edward began to speak to him. The vampire's soft, baritone voice provided Harry with a very much needed distraction from the pain.

"Have I ever told you about the moment I realized I was in love with you?" Edward asked quietly. He knew that Harry wouldn't answer him, but started the one-sided conversation with a question anyway.

"It was October the fifteenth. You had only been in Forks for a few months and, although we were friends and I was actively pursuing you, we weren't together yet. I saw you walking out of the market. It was raining and some woman left the store at the same time you did, but she'd forgotten her umbrella. You gave her your umbrella so that she wouldn't get wet, and then began to walk home in the rain. I enjoyed seeing your generosity, but wasn't surprised in the least by it.

"As I drove towards you to offer you a ride home, it sprung up in my mind out of nowhere. 'I just love him so much.' Everything in my life just crystallized in that moment. I realized that I wasn't just interested in you. Or attracted to you. Don't get me wrong, I was both those things. But I was _in_ _love_ with you in the way Carlisle and Esme are in love with one another. I suddenly didn't feel like such an outsider in my family. I knew in that moment that I wanted to spend all eternity with you, even if I stubbornly refused to admit it."

Edward chuckled softly before continuing. "By Halloween, we were dating and, less than a week later, I'd confessed that I loved you. After I heard myself say those three words, I was certain you'd run away. It was all too quick. After all of the weeks you'd spent shooting down my clumsy attempts at asking you out, it was ridiculous for me to move so quickly. And then you surprised me by saying that you were falling in love with me. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. Perhaps only overshadowed by when you agreed to marry me and when we were actually married. And the first time I saw you after my absence from Forks.

"That last one seems odd to you, I suspect. You barely spared me more than a single, angry glance before you turned away and hid your eyes from mine. You were angry, but I was just so happy to see you. I'd spent months thinking about you, imagining what you were doing while I was away. Daydreaming about your laugh and your smile."

Edward continued to talk to Harry for hours in the same manner. It was wonderful for the dark-haired boy to have something to think about. One by one, every spectacular moment of their relationship was recounted. And with every anecdote that Edward told, Harry allowed himself to relive the moment. He remembered blushing furiously when their hands accidentally touched across the lunch table when Edward handed him a book—a contact that was only accidental on Harry's part, it turned out. Then he remembered being taken by surprise the first time Edward had kissed him. Edward joked quietly to Harry that the human's eyes had widened comically when the vampire captured his lips with his own.

Finally, after what Harry knew to be days, the fire began to recede. Starting in his fingers and toes, a cool feeling began to flood his body. It was like water was being pumped into his system to extinguish the fire that had ravaged him for so long. Harry was enraptured with the sudden relief. Sadly, his relief didn't last for long as he was soon assaulted with a new and terrible pain.

His heart felt like it was about to explode. Harry's heartbeat began to pick up its pace at an alarming rate. In a matter of seconds, his chest went from feeling like he was resting comfortably to feeling like he was on the last leg of a marathon. But once it reached that heightened speed where it felt like he could tolerate it no more, it didn't level off or slow down. The beating just continued to accelerate.

The human once again lost all track of time. It felt as though all of the burning sensation he'd endured was concentrated in his heart; like the pain was a piece of paper that had been crumpled up into a tight ball and forced into the muscle. The pain was terrible and it took all of Harry's resolve not to arch his back and cry out in desperation for someone to help him.

Then, just as quickly as the new pain had arrived, it vanished. The pain was gone, as was Harry's mortality. He knew that fact beyond the shadow of any doubt. Because, how else could he still be thinking when his heart was no longer beating? He was a vampire just like the rest of his family.

"It's okay, Harry," Edward's voice came softly from the darkness. "It's over. When you're ready, you can open your eyes. But take your time, I'll be right here waiting for you."

**A/N 1:** Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. Reviews and constructive criticism are always welcomed.

**A/N 12:** People might wonder why Harry screamed out in "Goblet of Fire" when subjected to the cruciatus curse but not during his transformation. "The Twilight Saga" gives two specific examples of people that didn't scream out during their transformations: Carlisle and Bella. While it seemed okay to me for Harry to have a lower pain threshold than Carlisle, it didn't seem logical for his pain threshold to be lower than Bella Swan's. There was no way I would have Harry scream if she didn't.


	44. Chapter 44

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 44: Brave New World**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Forty-Three – Brave New World**

Harry waited a few minutes with his eyes closed. As he lay upon the bed, he explored with his newly-enhanced senses.

The bed was just as soft as before, but now he could feel the individual threads that had been woven into the bedspread beneath his back. And he could hear everything in the house, from Edward's soft breathing to the ticking of the clock on the downstairs mantle. Beyond what was in the house, he could hear things in the outdoors. An animal—a cat, perhaps—was softly padding across the back yard and there were birds chirping on one of the power lines that paralleled the main road that they had taken to get to the new house.

It took the new vampire a moment to realize that he wasn't breathing. Although he knew he didn't actually need to breathe anymore, he decided to give it a shot. He inhaled deeply and savored the scent of the air. Everything in the room from the carpet fibers to the little particles of dust floating in the air had their own distinct smells that Harry was able to distinguish. The vampire could also smell his husband's spicy cologne.

Harry zeroed in on his husband and searched underneath the cologne for his husband's unique scent. He'd never been able to detect it before, but Edward had his own fragrance. It smelled like warm honey with a light tinge of something else that the young immortal couldn't identify. Something floral. Lilac perhaps? Whatever the additional element was, it didn't stand out nearly as much as the sweet smell of honey.

Edward chuckled lightly next to Harry. The sound of his voice was so much sharper than before. It was as if the newborn had had cotton in his ears throughout his mortal life and was hearing his husband without obstruction for the first time.

Harry had wanted to give it a little bit more time so that he could completely explore the extent of his non-visual senses, but he just couldn't be that patient. He wanted to see his husband's face more than he'd ever wanted to see anything in his life. With more than a flicker of excitement, the vampire opened his eyes.

In many ways, Edward looked the same. He had the same high cheek bones and angular features that Harry had long since memorized. His lips were still just as full and his eyes just as topaz. The changes lay in the fact that every detail was much clearer to Harry's new eyes. The newly transformed boy was able to take in every bit of Edward's magnificent face in a way that made him momentarily question whether he'd ever actually looked upon the vampire before that moment.

As Harry marveled in the increased acuity with which he was seeing his husband, he reached forward with a carefully controlled hand and touched Edward's face. The older vampire's skin no longer felt cold and hard like marble, but was instead perfectly smooth, soft as silk, and as warm to Harry's touch as any human he'd touched when he was alive.

Edward smiled at Harry's gentle touch and squeezed the newborn's other hand, which was still had at his side. "How do you feel?" he asked his husband.

"I feel-"

"Perfect," Edward completed excitedly. "That is what you were going to say, wasn't it?"

Harry tilted his head to the side as best he could and analyzed his husband's expression. "Yes," he answered slowly.

Edward's smile grew larger. "I can hear you."

"Hear me?"

"Whatever it was that kept me from hearing your thoughts is gone now."

Harry moved his hand up and away from Edward's face to rest in his messy locks of his bronze hair. "Then what am I thinking right now?"

Edward moved quickly forward and connected his lips to Harry's. The motion, which would have been so fast that Harry wouldn't have had time to react at all when he was a human, now played out at a speed he was able to comprehend. The dark-haired vampire saw the muscles in Edward's neck begin to move as soon as he began to crane towards him and was able to move his own neck in concert in order to allow his husband easier access.

The kiss was a new experience as well. Before, kisses between Edward and Harry had always been a cold yet passionate experience limited by the human's necessity for oxygen. Now that their body temperatures were evenly matched and Harry was as much a statue as Edward, the kiss felt warm and soft. And now that neither Edward nor Harry was bound by the mortal requirement to breathe, the kiss lasted for several long minutes.

When they finally broke apart, Harry was laughing hard. He sat up and examined the bedroom he shared with Edward. As with everything else, the room made him feel like he'd spent his mortal life blind.

"You can hear my thoughts," Harry mused aloud. He began to absorb the implications of that concept. Whatever mental barrier had existed when he was a mortal had collapsed when his heart stopped beating. He had originally believed that his immunity to Edward's power had to do with his status as a wizard, much like his immunity to Alice's foresight. But that theory had been shot down when his husband proved capable of reading the thoughts of other wizards. Was there another reason he had been immune while he was mortal that no longer applied? Or was it something unique to his magic, like the ability to speak parseltongue? Had he lost that mystic defense and the rest of his magic, or had he retained his wizarding abilities? "I wonder what other changes there are."

Edward stood up next to the bed and extended a hand to Harry. "Let me show you."

Harry accepted the offered hand and allowed himself to be pulled towards the bathroom. His husband pulled him into the room so that he could examine himself in the mirror.

Superficially, he still looked like Harry Potter; he retained the same basic physical features that he'd had in life. There were significant changes, however. For starters, he was paler, his features were more angular, and his entire body was more toned. His hair was both darker and longer. The color was a darker brown than it had been after it had grown back, but it was still lighter than the pitch black shade it had been before he was sick. His hair had grown longer as a result of his transformation so that the dark strands fell haphazardly around his face. It was now about as long as Jasper's hair, but was significantly straighter. Upon turning his head to examine the length in back, he decided he'd need a trim to balance things out. Alice, he was certain, would be happy to help him out.

The most startling change of all was his eyes: they were now blood red. As he looked into the mirror, he felt a pang of sorrow at the loss of his mother's green eyes. He knew that this was going to happen. Edward, after all, had had green eyes like Harry's when he was alive. Still, the change caught him off guard.

"It's the human blood in your system. As your old blood dissipates over the next year, your eyes will take on a color to match your diet," Edward answered the concerns that he could hear rattling around inside his husband's head.

"Red for humans, amber for animals," Harry said.

Edward didn't say anything, but Harry did see him nod his confirmation in the mirror. The younger vampire knew that there was a high probability that he'd slip up during one of his early years as a vampire and feed off of a human, so his eyes might remain red far longer than he'd like to think about.

Harry went back to messing with his hair. He parted it just off of center as Alice had done on the night of his wedding. The added length allowed him to tuck some of the longer strands behind his ears. He shot a disgruntled look at the overly long strands in back and made another mental note to ask Alice to help him with that later.

It was while after changing the part in his hair that he noticed another major change in his appearance: his scar was gone. The lightning bolt scar that had adorned his forehead since he was fifteen months old was absent. It must have healed in the same way his broken wrist had, he realized.

In fact, all of the various scars that Harry had gained over his mortal lifetime—though it seemed a bit odd to think of a little over seventeen years as a 'lifetime'—were gone. Only two scars remained on his entire body, and they were brand new.: a pair of crescent-shaped scars was now visible on Harry's neck. The new scars, he knew, matched Edward's mouth perfectly because they had been given to him when Edward had injected his venom into Harry's bloodstream just three days prior.

Edward gently reached out and wrapped his arms around his husband's waist and pulled the smaller vampire flush with his chest. Harry relished the sensation of being held by Edward. He'd always enjoyed such embraces, but his heightened senses made this seem like a totally novel experience.

The taller vampire bent his neck downwards and placed a kiss directly on the scars on Harry's neck. The feeling of Edward's lips on that particular part of his body sent vibrant chills on a downward course through his body. Harry let out an involuntary gasp at the thrill and that sound caused Edward to laugh softly against his skin.

"An added bonus," Edward began between kisses, "is that I can now hear exactly how you feel about every little thing I do. I know how to drive you absolutely wild."

Harry was helpless against the overwhelming onslaught of each and every new sensation. Even the slightest caress felt like it was a thousand times more magnificent and sensual than even the heights of their previous passionate exploits.

While a mortal, the youngest of the Cullen coven might have lost track of time, but his immortal mind knew that he was putty in Edward's hands for exactly ninety minutes. An hour and a half had never passed so quickly to Harry. His newfound awareness of the passage of time astounded the newborn.

Edward placed his mouth very close to Harry's right ear and, in his rich, velvety voice, asked, "Are you hungry, my love."

At the mention of being hungry, Harry felt a tickle in his throat. It wasn't the raging fire that his family had described the thirsty sensation to be, but he still identified it. He wanted to hunt.

"Yes."

The older vampire released his hold on Harry and proceeded to lead him down the stairs and out of the house. Once out the back door, the newborn had to stop and take in all of the wonders around him before he could go any farther.

After waiting for Harry to adjust to his new perception of the outside world, Edward began to instruct him. "You're stronger and faster now. Faster than me, stronger than Emmett. You will be until all of the human blood has left your system and you are no longer a newborn."

"A whole year of being the strongest in the family. You know there is no way I can resist rubbing that in Emmett's face, right?"

Edward smirked at Harry's joke. The speed with which Harry was adapting to all of his changes was remarkable. He believed that it had something to do with the amount of time Harry had spent around vampires and the way he'd done everything imaginable to prepare himself for his transformation. "Leap into the woods," he instructed.

Harry looked towards the trees that abutted the property. He was a good ten meters from the closest tree. The logical part of his brain that knew a vampire would have no difficulty jumping such a distance was at war with the parts of his brain that still thought of himself as being constrained by human limitations.

"Don't think about it, Harry. Just do it," Edward encouraged.

In an instant, Harry sprung forward and found himself propelled a good fifteen meters into the forest. Although he hadn't been focused on any but the closest handful of trees, the more distant ones had remained within his field of vision and every minor detail, from their location to their scent, had been taken into account as he jumped.

A smile spread across the vampire's face as he began to run and jump through the woods at speeds that no human could match. He knew that even a wizard on a Firebolt would have had difficulty keeping sight of him. Edward called for him to slow down, but he was just having too much fun.

The dark-haired vampire continued to race through the trees. The house faded into the distance behind him until it was beyond even his enhanced senses to notice. Edward too was beginning to fade away. Then, very abruptly, something caught his attention.

Harry could smell something in the forest. The smell was unique and oddly familiar to him. He immediately changed course to investigate. As the scent grew stronger, he began to hear noises. Although indistinct at first, he soon recognized that he was hearing voices talking to one another.

With sudden terror, Harry realized what the familiar smell was: humans. He had changed course and started to head towards humans. The new vampire forced his legs to lock up so that he would go no closer. Because he hadn't taken the time to slow down when he commanded his legs to stop moving, he continued to fly forward and went tumbling through rocks and bushes.

Edward was upon him a moment later. The older vampire examined his frightened husband very closely. Harry was wide-eyed and shaken. His shirt had been torn to ribbons by his fall and Edward could see the younger vampire's chest moving up and down in quick succession. If he were still a human, Edward would think that Harry Cullen was hyperventilating.

"Harry?" Edward asked quietly as he moved down by Harry's position on the forest floor.

"People," Harry whispered. "There are people. I-I-What do I do?"

The bronze-haired vampire reached out and took hold of Harry's shoulders and pulled him into a strong embrace. "It's okay, Harry. You stopped yourself. You did everything just right."

Harry wrapped his arms around Edward's waist and buried his head in his shoulder. "I started to head their direction because I could smell them. I stopped as soon as I heard their voices and realized what it was I was smelling."

"You did great, Harry. More than I could have at your age."

But Harry could still smell the humans in the distance and the thought that something could break lose inside of himself at any moment and compel him to hunt them down and feed from their bodies terrified him to the very core of his being. Those thoughts caused Harry to hold onto his husband even tighter and pray that the humans would begin to move in the other direction soon.


	45. Chapter 45

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 45: The First Hunt**

Harry Potter and the Setting Sun

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Forty-Four – The First Hunt**

Edward continued to hold Harry for quite some time. His husband slowly calmed down, but maintained a vice-like grip on Edward's midsection.

He was amazed at Harry's ability to resist the urge to track down the humans in the forest and slaughter them. Edward silently cursed himself for allowing the dark-haired vampire to escape him so easily. He knew that there was no way he could have protected the humans from his husband. Harry would have beaten Edward to his prey by several seconds and Edward would have been unable to restrain his husband without causing him severe harm. And Edward simply would not allow that kind of injury to befall Harry.

Harry's breathing eventually slowed down such that the compressions of his chest complemented Edwards. When Edward breathed in, Harry breathed out and when Edward breathed out, Harry breathed in. When Harry calmed enough that Edward didn't have to worry about him racing off to commit horrendous acts of slaughter, the more experienced vampire was able to focus on the still-frenzied thoughts of the newborn.

The bronze-haired vampire was quite curious as to what Harry thought about the scent of humans. The level of self-control he showed was spectacular. Except for Carlisle and Rosalie, every member of Cullen family had had to spend years practicing to develop that level of control over their urges.

But Harry's thoughts didn't make sense to Edward. "Harry?" he asked quietly.

The newborn waited several seconds before giving any indication that he'd even heard his husband speak. Harry turned his head slightly so that his mouth was no longer flush with the cloth covering Edward's shoulder. "Yes, Edward."

"When you smelled the humans, what did it smell like to you?"

Harry tightened his grip almost painfully on Edward. "It's hard to describe. It smelled like people, though. There are more than one of them, but they all smelled kinda the same. I knew it was familiar when I caught my first whiff, but I couldn't place it. Then when I heard the voices, I knew exactly what it was."

"That's all?" Edward pressed. "It didn't smell savory or anything like that?"

"Not savory, exactly. It smelled good. Appetizing, even. But they didn't smell like something I just couldn't live without."

"Curious," the older vampire commented.

Harry pulled back slightly to get a good look at his husband's face. Edward appeared to be deep in thought. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Edward answered immediately. "I think something might be very right, actually. But I don't know for sure. Carlisle would know better."

"Should we go talk to him?"

"Later," Edward said as he rose to his feet and then helped Harry to stand. "First, we need to get you something to eat."

"Something not human," the newborn stressed.

Edward knew he shouldn't laugh at Harry's statement, but he chuckled anyway. The bronze-haired telepath wasted no time in leading Harry in the opposite direction from the humans. After getting what Edward considered to be a safe distance from them, the amber-eyed vampire led his young mate into the tree tops.

Harry loved the speed at which he could travel as a vampire. He could run so fast that he thought several times that it would take only a little effort to go airborne. And once Edward pulled him upward so that they were leaping from one giant tree top to another, he felt like he was flying. It was incredible.

Without any forewarning, Edward clamped his claw-like fingers into the body of one of the ancient trees. Although he'd given his husband no indication that he was preparing to stop, Harry's enhanced reflexes allowed him to mimic his husband's action and so take hold of the same tree.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Bear," was Edward's simple explanation.

The younger vampire began to sniff the air in an attempt to find the animal that Edward was sensing. It took him a moment, but he could smell it as well. He found a musky scent that was just as appetizing as the humans had been. Once he found the scent, he was able to zero in on the animals and listen to its slow movements through the woods.

Harry was a bit peeved that Edward sensed the bear before he had. The younger vampire was the newborn, after all. He was supposed to more powerful than Edward for several months.

"It just takes practice," Edward said in response to Harry thoughts.

Harry sent his husband and mocking glare. "I don't know how Alice has been able to stand you doing that all these years."

"Alice has the patience of a saint," Edward replied with one of his patented crooked smiled.

"We both know that's a lie. You must be bribing her or something," Harry quipped. "So, there's a bear."

"Yes, there is."

"Emmett has always highly recommended bear." Harry's face scrunched up for a moment before he continued. "How do I do this? Do I sneak up on it? Or do I just charge in there?"

"Let your instincts guide you. Rosalie was right the other day: vampires are natural predators. Everything about us is designed for the hunt. Just start moving that direction and follow your instincts."

Harry nodded his head before leaping to the next tree. He didn't like the slight rustling sound that the tree made when he landed on it—he was trying to be stealthy, after all—so he carefully moved himself down to the forest floor. With unnatural grace, Harry moved along in the direction of the bear.

The newborn followed the scent. With every step, the sound of the bear's movements became louder. And then he was able to hear something else coming from the animal. It was a low, repetitive sound. Harry focused on that noise, which he soon realized was the bear's heartbeat. That knowledge excited Harry and caused his throat to burn.

Finally, the bear come into view. Harry was standing the better part of a kilometer away, but he could see the bear move through a small gap in the distant trees. As soon as the bear came into sight, the vampire froze. He waited until the bear had moved just beyond his range of vision before he began to move once more.

Harry traveled swiftly and silently amongst the trees. He knew where the bear was now, so he was able to always keep himself hidden by a wall of foliage. The newborn vampire moved around the bear until he was standing in the path that the bear had been traveling through. In other words, he put himself at the bear's back.

The dark-haired teen remained perfectly still in that one spot for several seconds as he watched the path that the bear had taken. He sniffed the air again and found that he could discern the bear's exact path through the woods. Once he'd found that path, he struck.

Moving at speeds far beyond what any other predator in the forest could manage, Harry hurtled down the path after the bear. Despite the speed at which he was running, the vampire maintained his supernatural grace and so made virtually no sound at all. The term 'virtually' best describes it because while he did make sound, it was far too soft for any but the most precise of senses to detect. Another vampire, for instance, would have had no difficulty in hearing his approach.

The bear didn't stand a chance. By the time it realized that anything was going on, Harry had clamped his strong jaws down and the creature's neck and began to feast hungrily on its blood. The large, dark furred bear did its best to fight back, but it was a futile effort. Its claws could do no damage to Harry's marble-like skin and his usually powerful paw could have been a feather for all the good it did against Harry. The only damage that the bear managed to inflict was to further ruin Harry's already tattered shirt.

When he was finished with his first kill, Edward joined him in a second hunt and then a third. After three kills, Harry had eaten his fill and was ready to return home.

With the same excitement that he had felt for his first jumps through the trees of the forest, Harry followed Edward as the older vampire led him back to their home. Harry was surprised when he realized that that was where they were heading, but the surprise didn't last long. He'd left the house barefoot and had since torn his favorite blue shirt into ruined rags. There was simply no way that Harry could go see Alice Cullen of all people looking like that; the female vampire would have a conniption.

After the brief stop at home in which Harry put on shoes, socks, and a gray sweater, the pair began to race towards the old Cullen house. It was the first time Harry had been able to see the house and it matched what he imagined almost perfectly.

The old Cullen house was situated on the side of a hill. Much of its exterior looked like a log cabin except for one entire side of the house that was made of glass. The large panels of glass reminded Harry very much of the Cullens' home in Forks, Washington. The Alaskan home's roofline jutted upward to form a very sharp point and a large balcony wrapped around at least two of the non-glass sides of the third floor.

As soon as the house came into view, so did Alice Cullen. She was standing out front with a giddy smile on her face. Harry could hear her call to her family members as Harry and Edward neared the house.

The entire coven came out to greet the newlyweds when they arrived.

Harry slowed his pace once he was about a dozen meters from the assembled family. Edward took his left hand in his right one and proceeded to escort his husband the rest of the way. The younger vampire casually brushed a stray strand of his dark hair out of his face in order to show off the fact that the scar on his forehead had disappeared.

"Oh, Harry, you look wonderful," Esme said as she moved forward to embrace both Edward and Harry.

Once Esme had finished hugging the two children that she tended to think of as her youngest—Harry always found it ironic that Edward had to pretend to be younger than his siblings when he was, in fact, older than all of them except for Jasper—everyone else took a turn to congratulate Harry on his successful transformation.

"I also believe we need to congratulate you on resisting the humans," Alice said cheerily as she locked her left arm with Harry's right one and began to lead him and, by extension, Edward towards the house.

"Humans?" Carlisle asked sharply.

"Harry caught wind of some humans when he started his hunt. He began to head their direction with Edward hot on his trail," the short female vampire explained in a tone that one might use when discussing the weather.

Immediately, several members of the coven voiced their reaction to the news. Rosalie's shout was the loudest as she called Edward a 'dolt' and berated him for not stopping Harry as soon as he realized what Harry was doing.

"But," Alice interrupted in a shout so as to be heard over the crowd, "Harry stopped himself as soon as he realized what it was that he was smelling."

"You stopped yourself?" Carlisle was quick to ask.

"Yes," Harry confirmed.

"Well that's wonderful news," Esme said in a delighted tone.

"Unless you're Emmett or Jasper," Alice said slyly to Harry. "They've been betting on how many humans you'll kill. Wizards excluded, of course."

"How did you know all of that?" the newborn asked his sister.

"I heard them making the bet earlier."

"No, I mean about me smelling the humans."

"Well, I believe that my theory about only being able to see things I can relate to—that is, normal humans and vampires—was right," the spiky-haired vampire explained. "As soon as you became a vampire, I could see your future. One moment all I could see of you was a blurry haze and in the next moment everything just snapped into focus."

"There's more to the story than what you could see, Alice," Edward said. "Harry's thoughts about the humans were a bit odd."

"You heard his thoughts?" Jasper asked.

"Yes. As soon as his heart stopped beating, I could hear everything he was thinking loud and clear. And when he was thinking about the humans, he definitely wasn't thinking what I had expected him to. He was thinking a lot like Carlisle, actually."

"What do you mean?" Rosalie asked as she looked back and forth between the pair.

By this time, the group had reached the living room of the Cullen house. It was furnished in much the same way as the living room in the Forks house had been: the spacious room was lined with pale, comfortable furniture positioned around a massive plasma television.

"He recognized the scent as being that of, well, food," the telepath began. "But I couldn't hear any of the usual thoughts about how wonderful and inviting it smelled. It was as if he recognized the humans as one option for his meal, but just decided to have something else. Like picking one candy bar over another."

"Is that how you feel about it, Harry?" Carlisle asked.

Harry relived the moment in his mind before answering. "Yes, that is exactly what it was like. I knew that I was smelling, as Edward put it, 'food.' And I knew that whatever it was would satisfy my hunger. But once I realized that I was smelling humans, I just forced myself to stop. I was so scared of killing innocent people that I just froze and didn't move until Edward came for me."

"You weren't tempted by them at all?" Emmett asked.

"Well, they smelled like food. But it wasn't like what any of you described to me before. You used to say that the smell of human blood made your throats burn and that you felt like the only thing that could put the fire out was the blood. I didn't feel like that. I had a little tickle in my throat, but I felt the same way when I saw hunting the bear."

Emmett gave a smirk and a nod at the mention of the bear.

"That's exactly how it is for me," Carlisle said in amazement.

"Well," Edward said to Harry, "it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Carlisle has always said that he believes it was his compassion that he carried over from his mortal life that has given him such excellent self-control. Maybe it's the same with you. I seem to remember hearing Jacob Black thinking quite a bit about how I was trying to take advantage of your compassionate nature when I first returned to Forks."

Usually, any mention of the time when Edward and Harry were broken up brought up awful memories of being left alone in the snowy forest outside of Forks. Instead, the mention of him being 'compassionate' brought up a totally different memory. Harry remembered the argument he'd had with Headmaster Dumbledore.

He was confident in his decision. Harry knew that he'd done the right thing at the time. But there was still a nagging voice in the back of his head that wondered if he could really be considered compassionate when he'd turned a deaf ear on his old friends and opted to remain blissfully ignorant of all of the innocent people caught between the headmaster and the dark lord. Especially if he really was the only one that could stop Lord Voldemort. His intention to lend a hand was, after all, based on his interest in protecting his family, not on any desire to help the British wizarding community at large.


	46. Chapter 46

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 46: Across the Pond Again**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Forty-Five – Across the Pond . . . Again**

Harry spent a whole week indulging in his new senses. Everything he did was like a first time experience. Every action which, prior to his becoming a vampire, was mundane or casual was now capable of evoking a million different emotions.

The first time the newborn stood in the light of the sun was breathtaking. The beams of light reflected off of his skin and bathed his surroundings in every color of the rainbow. The moment was made even more spectacular when Edward joined him.

Edward also took the time to expose his young husband to humans to test the limitations of Harry's self-control. They discovered that Harry did indeed have incredible restraint when it came to the humans. The dark-haired vampire's ability to control his thirst wasn't as perfect as his new father's and was apparently affected by two factors: the number of humans in close proximity to himself and how long it had been since he'd last fed.

In the days immediately following a feeding, Harry could walk the streets of Denali without any fear of losing control. But as he became hungrier, the humans' blood became more and more appealing. The coven theorized that if he went more than a week or so without feeding, then a crowd of humans might prove to be far too tempting; it would be like parading a starving man in front of a buffet. He'd need an alternate food source right then and there in order to keep himself from killing a human or two to sate his hunger. Perhaps, with years of practice, his restraint would be on par with Rosalie and Carlisle.

The week wasn't devoted entirely to Harry's hedonistic passions and testing the limits of his control, however. He also took time to call Jacob and Leah to touch base. Leah didn't ask any questions and answered all of Harry's with short, clipped, responses. Jacob, by comparison, was very interested in finding out all of the details about Harry's new abilities. The alpha also assured Harry that Leah just needed time to adjust to her friend's change; she'd warm back up to him eventually.

The other major focus of the week was planning. It was mid-September. There was less than four months before Aro would make good on his threat to destroy the Cullen coven. If Harry was going to end a war that had been going on in one form or another for decades, he'd need to get started as soon as possible.

The biggest catch was the same one as he and Edward had faced before: they had no idea how to get in touch with Dumbledore. An owl was out the question, they had no idea how to get to Hogwarts, and they couldn't access Diagon Alley without a wand—not that it would have been safe for a group of vampires to take a stroll in there even if they took the time to put Harry's broken wand back together. It appeared that the only viable option was to go back to the Burrow.

After procuring new travel papers for Harry and Edward—a step necessitated by Headmaster Dumbledore's decision to report Harry as the victim of a kidnapping—the group was off. It wasn't just Edward and Harry who traveled to Britian this time; the entire family went. The four stunningly attractive couples certainly made for a sight at the airport.

"I guess the next step is to figure out who all is going to the Weasley home," Carlisle said as he strolled into one of the two hotel suites the group had booked for their stay in London.

"I thought all of us were going to go," came Emmett's disgruntled response.

"We need to work with these people, not scare them to death," the vampire patriarch replied.

"I wouldn't be opposed to scaring one or two of them to death," Harry joked.

Carlisle gave Harry and Emmett a mock glare.

"Now boys, you know better than to play with your food," Rosalie said in a distracted voice as she passed the trio to get a good look at the room. She didn't even register it when Carlisle turned his glare in her direction. "I like the bedroom on the left. It has a nice southern exposure."

"I guess that means she's calling dibbs," Alice said as she entered the room with Jasper and Edward in tow.

"Harry and I will take the room on the right," Edward said before anyone else could stake their claim. He turned to his dark-haired sister and smirked. "I guess that means you and Jasper get to share the other suite with Mom and Dad."

"He's only claiming that room because he knows you're still squeamish about people hearing you two going at it. It's easier if it's other 'teens' as opposed to the parents," Emmett whispered to his new little brother.

Harry pulled his arm back and smacked the curly-headed vampire on the back of the head. Sadly, he still hadn't quite gotten the hang of his enhanced strength and so sent Emmett flying across the room. He was lucky the large vampire didn't break any of the room's expensive furniture before he skidded to a stop by the far wall.

"Sorry," Harry apologized sheepishly.

Emmett righted himself while the other members of the coven laughed at Harry's display of brute strength. "Try to remember that you're a good deal stronger than the rest of us at the moment," the burly vampire said.

"Maybe you should try to remember not to tease him about his sex life until _after_ the human blood has dissipated," Rosalie said as she disappeared into the bedroom she'd claimed.

"Getting back to the topic at hand," Jasper sighed. "I think it should be Harry, Carlisle, and myself."

"Why not me?" Emmett and Edward demanded at the same time.

"Harry must go, but he cannot go alone. Carlisle is a logical choice for a companion because he is the most level-headed of all of us and will be in the best position to restrain him if something happens that breaks his control over his hunger. I believe that I am also a logical choice because there is a chance that my power will work on Dumbledore."

"There's no way to know for sure that it will work," Esme pointed out.

"True, but we know for certain that Edward will not be privy to the wizard's thoughts and Alice's foresight does not permit her to see anything that includes wizards. Mine is the only ability that has a chance of working on the headmaster," Jasper explained.

"That still doesn't explain why you don't want anyone else going with us," Harry said as he pulled Edward against his side.

"As Carlisle said, we don't wish to scare them too badly. From what you have told us, wizards hate vampires. The more of us that attend, the more threatened the wizards will feel. Also, given that we are splitting into two groups, I feel that it is important that the group that remains behind have sufficiently good fighters that they can protect themselves. Alice and Esme are our least experienced combatants. Rosalie, Edward, and Emmett should remain behind to assist them in the event that the wizards learn of our location and decide to try something."

"What he actually means is that he's confident in his ability to keep Harry safe so he wants as many of the rest of us as possible to protect Alice in his stead," Edward interjected.

The frown that formed on Jasper's usually impassive face told Harry that Edward was right. The bronze-haired vampire had pulled Jasper's rationale directly out of his mind.

"I agree with Jasper," Carlisle said. "We need to keep the group small for this first encounter." Edward attempted to protest but Carlisle didn't give him the chance. "The wizards have seen you once before, Edward. You broke into the Burrow to save Harry and, in the process, hit one of the Weasley sons pretty hard."

"His thoughts towards a married man were . . . inappropriate," Edward bit out, much to Harry's shock.

"Nevertheless, your presence may serve only to agitate them. I am less than confident in your ability to keep your tempter in check a second time. And it would be wise to keep the group small so that, should the need arise, it can escape with greater ease."

Edward continued to glare at his adoptive father defiantly for several seconds—an eternity for an immortal—but he eventually gave in. The logic was sound; his presence would only complicate matters. And if things did turn ugly, there was a decreased chance that anyone in a smaller group would be captured.

Carlisle, Jasper, and Harry set out for Ottery St. Catchpole shortly after sunset. They wanted to arrive a while after dinner in the hopes of their being as few visitors as possible. Rosalie had had the foresight to purchase a number of cloaks from an online store so that Harry may approach the wizards without his vampiric traits being easily noticeable. Given Edward's rescue of Harry during his previous visit, the wizards would expect him to be accompanied by vampires but would not necessarily expect him to be a vampire himself.

When they arrived at the Burrow, Harry took the lead. He was nervous about facing round two of this nonsense. Jasper was kind enough to send calming emotions to Harry via the blond's empathic powers.

The youngest of the trio of vampires went up to the door and knocked. Remembering what happened with Emmett earlier that day, Harry was careful to control the amount of force he put behind each knock.

After about a minute, the front door opened just a crack and a wand emerged. The little piece of wood looked quite delicate to Harry's immortal eyes. When he was a human, a wand seemed like a very sturdy piece of wood. Now he was certain he could break it with only a hard jab of a finger.

"Who are you?" a voice asked. Harry recognized the voice as that of Arthur Weasley.

"It's Harry, Mr. Weasley. I need to talk to the headmaster."

"What was your patronus?"

The question surprised the vampire for a moment, but he quickly realized that the wizard was trying to confirm his identity. It seemed a bit odd that Charlie hadn't bothered to do so on his first visit. "A stag," Harry answered.

"Why?"

"Because that was my father's animagus form."

The man was silent for a minute before he said anything else. "Who is with you?"

"My father, er, my _new_ father and one of my brothers," Harry answered. "Look, after what happened last time, I don't expect you to just open the door for us. So why don't you go and floo Hogwarts and tell Professor Dumbledore that I'm here."

Arthur Weasley considered the thought as he continued to hide behind the door. "Okay. Just wait out there."

"We'll wait in the woods," Jasper said sharply. "Just in case you or one of your compatriots decides to do something astoundingly stupid. Again."

Mr. Weasley slammed the door in a huff at that statement. Clearly, he believed that it was Harry that had done something stupid during their previous encounter. The dark-haired immortal shook his head in exasperation before running off into the woods with Carlisle and Jasper.

The three vampires didn't have to wait in the woods for very long. Not three minutes passed after Mr. Weasley shut the door before Albus Dumbledore emerged from the house in robes of red and gold—Gryffindor colors. He was flanked by Professor Snape and a tall black man that Harry didn't recognize. The tree wizards exited the house, but traveled no farther than the front stoop before stopping.

"I guess we should go say hello," Carlisle said before he began to approach the house once more. Harry was relieved that Carlisle was taking the lead this time. "Greetings. My name is Carlisle," the vampire said as he came near the house.

Harry was impressed that none of the three wizards raised their wands at the cloaked figures heading their way.

"Greetings, Carlisle. I am Albus Dumbledore. This is Professor Snape and Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt," the old wizard introduced.

"This is my son, Jasper. And you know Harry, of course," Carlisle said as he motioned to the two cloaked figures that accompanied him. Harry was careful to keep his face obscured by the hood of his cloak.

The headmaster regarded Jasper for a long, scrutinizing moment. "And would you be Mr. Potter's husband?"

"No," Jasper said. "As we told the other wizard, I am his brother. And he isn't a Potter anymore."

"I see," the headmaster said quietly. "I wonder if Mr. P-" he stopped himself before making the same mistake a second time. "I wonder, Harry, if you would be willing to talk to me in private for a bit. I swear that I shall do no magic on you. There will be no need for your vampire companions to join us," he headmaster said as he motioned away from the house.

Harry wasn't the least bit surprised that the headmaster had figured out that Carlisle and Jasper were vampires. He wondered if the wizard had reached the same conclusion about him. With his enhanced senses, Harry turned his attention to Jasper.

In a voice both too quick and too quiet for anyone but the vampires to hear, Jasper spoke to his younger brother, "I sense no deception; he's telling the truth."

Satisfied with Jasper's assessment of the situation and quietly pleased that Jasper's ability seemed to work on the headmaster, Harry decided that he would go and talk with the headmaster. "Alright."

Headmaster Dumbledore led Harry away from the Burrow and into the large open area where the Weasley children often practiced quidditch. Once there, the headmaster settled himself down on a large fallen tree that lay at the edge of the treeline that hid the field from prying Muggle eyes.

"I must admit, Harry, that I am surprised to see you again. After our last conversation and the, shall we say, abominable way I disregarded your wishes, I rather thought that you'd flown the coop for good."

"You weren't afraid that I'd just been kidnapped by a vampire?"

The headmaster chuckled. "No, Harry. You'd already mentioned the fact that you were married and the vampire's actions were clearly meant for your benefit, not your detriment. If that vampire had been a servant of Tom, then he never would have been willing to shield you from the stunning spells with his own body."

"It you knew I wasn't in danger, then why tell the police that I was kidnapped?"

"Alas, Harry, that was a mistake on my part. I had hoped that your vampire companion would not risk the exposure of his kind. I believed that the police would eventually catch up to you two and, when that happened, he would have been forced to surrender to the Muggle authorities rather than use his enhanced abilities to escape. Once you were apprehended, we would have been able to have a more rational conversation about the situation. The plan, I soon realized, was ridiculous. How could I hope to have a rational conversation with you after all of that? We threw hexes at you and your husband. We turned you into a fugitive. They were grave mistakes on my part, and I hope you will forgive me for them in time."

Harry was silent at the headmaster's apology. Part of him wanted to forgive the wizard, but another part of him wanted to punch a hole straight through his chest. He settled to simply watch the headmaster like a stone gargoyle.

The headmaster's shoulders sagged as he let out a weary sigh. "I am very pleased you have returned, Harry. But I am afraid I have many more apologies to give to you. It is time that you and I had a conversation that I should have had with you when you were eleven years old."

**A/N:** Why does Jasper's power work on Dumbledore? "The Twilight Saga" canon establishes that Jasper's power has nothing to do with the minds of the people whose emotions he senses and affects. It is said to be biologically-based. This is why he can use his ability on Bella Swan even though she is immune to mental-based vampiric powers. Given that it isn't a mental power, I don't think occlumency should protect against it.


	47. Chapter 47

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 47: The Truth**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Forty-Six – The Truth**

"And what, pray tell, should you have told me during my first year at Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

"Before you were born, a prophecy was made."

"By whom?" the vampire interrupted.

"Sybill Trelawney. As you may recall, she predicted Peter Pettigrew's return to Voldemort's service at the end of your third year. At the time, I told you that it was the second real prophecy she had made. The first of her real prophecies was made before you were born and it also concerns Voldemort."

Harry tried to remember Professor Trelawney's prophecy about Pettigrew, but it was so hard to remember much before his transformation. Everything from his mortal life was obscured, like trying to watch a movie with a sheet of black satin covering the screen. He could vaguely remember the woman's basic appearance and some of her eccentricities, but the specifics were hard to make out.

"And you should have told me this prophecy during my first year?"

"Yes, Harry, I should have. After your encounter with the possessed Professor Quirrell, you asked me why Voldemort went after you as a baby. I avoided answering the question in my determination to keep you a child as long as possible. I had hoped that by not telling you why Voldemort murdered your parents and attempted to murder you, that I would leave you free to enjoy your younger years without a dark cloud shading your every step. It was wrong of me and I apologize for that mistake."

"And this prophecy is the reason why Voldemort attacked me," Harry concluded. He heard the professor's apology, but he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment.

"Yes, Harry, it is. The prophecy made by Sybill was: '_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. . . . born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies . . . and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not, . . . and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. . . .the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies . . .'_"

Silence reigned throughout the darkened field as Harry allowed the words to sink into his brain. "And . . . it means me. That's what you're saying. That's why you were trying to force me to stay and fight. According to this prophecy, I'm the only one with the ability to kill him."

"Yes, Harry. You are."

"How do you know it refers to me? There are bound to be dozens of kids born at the end of July," Harry pointed out.

"But there were only two children that met the other criteria. A child born at the end of July whose parents had defied Voldemort three times," the aged wizard said.

"Me and who else?"

"Neville Longbottom."

"Neville?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Yes. Both of you met the requirements of the prophecy before Voldemort picked you. But he _did_ pick you. And he marked you by leaving the lightning bolt scar on your forehead—the souvenir of his attempt to kill you. He marked you as his equal."

"So it is me," Harry said.

"Yes, Harry. I'm afraid that there is no doubt that it is you."

Harry thought about the matter for several long moments. "How did Voldemort find out?"

"I beg you pardon?"

"The prophecy was made, and then what? If Voldemort went after me because of the prophecy, he'd either had to have been there when it was made or someone else who was there would had have told him about it."

"Very astute, Harry," the headmaster said. "Sybill made the prophecy to me. Another person was present and he overhead a portion of it. The eavesdropper reported the portion of the prophecy that he had overheard to Voldemort."

"And that's why Voldemort picked me. That's why he believes I'm the only one that can defeat him."

"How do you know what Voldemort believes, Harry?" the headmaster asked in surprise.

"I'll tell you if you tell me something," Harry offered darkly.

"An exchange of information, then?"

"Precisely. I will tell you how I know that Voldemort believes I'm the only person who can defeat him, if you tell me who told him the prophecy."

Harry could see the color drain from the headmaster's face and could hear the old man's heart begin to race.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that, Harry."

"Can't or won't?"

"What would you do if I told you, Harry? Would hunt the eavesdropper down? Sink you teeth into his throat?" The wizard's voice wasn't threatening or accusatory. If anything, it was merely curious.

The immortal laughed out loud. "I was wondering if you'd figured it out."

"It wasn't very hard, Harry. You are married to a vampire. You move about with a grace that you didn't have the last time I saw you. And there is a certain spell that I am quite fond of that allows me to detect the presence of humans. I used it earlier and it did not detect you."

"So you know that I'm a vampire. How do you feel about that?"

"If you are happy with your life and your husband, who am I to judge? Given the color of your brother's eyes, I can assume that you do not indulge in human blood, so I have no objections."

"Oh," Harry said quietly. "I, uh, hadn't expected that reaction." Harry hadn't expected the headmaster to be familiar enough with vampire physiology to know about the link between diet and eye color.

"There are other wizards who will be less accepting of it, so I think it best to keep this close to the chest, as the saying goes."

"Uh, yeah," was all Harry could say. He honestly thought that the headmaster would be very angry to learn that he'd become a vampire. "That doesn't change the fact that I want to know who it was that told Voldemort about the prophecy. That man is just as responsible for my parents' deaths as Pettigrew. He should be in Azkaban, at least."

"Unless the eavesdropper simply made a mistake."

"A mistake?" Harry demanded hotly. "How is listening to the prophecy and then reporting it back to Voldemort a mistake?"

"I will not tell you anything, Harry, except to say that it was a tragic mistake by a hurt and desperate man. He greatly regrets it and has done all that he can to make amends. It is important that you not focus on revenge."

"You're so full of it!" Harry shouted. "You want me to do nothing but focus on revenge. You just want to dictate who it is I get my revenge on."

The headmaster sighed wearily. "I won't tell you."

"Fine," Harry bit out. "But don't think I won't be using my own resources to uncover the bastard's identity." There was a part of Harry that wanted to ransom his help for the name, but he couldn't risk the headmaster calling his bluff.

"So, what now, Harry?"

"Now we try and figure out how we can work together. We both want Voldemort defeated once and for all."

"Yes, we do," Albus Dumbledore agreed.

"We need to figure out how to kill Voldemort. He was hit with a reflected killing curse once before, so we probably need something a bit more potent. I mean, if he survived that, what are the chances that me putting my hand through his chest will kill him for good?"

"I believe that I have already deduced the answer to that particular conundrum, Harry."

"Well, don't leave me dying of suspense," Harry said wryly.

"I spent a number of years trying to uncover the secret of how Voldemort was able to survive that night. Every possibility that I came across fell short. And then you came across a very important clue during your second year: the diary."

"The diary?" Harry asked. He racked his brain for the fuzzy details of the events of his second year. "Do you mean Tom Riddle's diary?"

"Yes, Harry. The shade of his former self that he placed within that diary was a fragment of his soul. It was a Horcrux."

"A what?"

"A Horcrux, Harry. It is sort of a dark reliquary. A Horcrux is an object that houses and protects a fragment of a wizard's soul. As long as the object is intact, the wizard is anchored to this world."

"So while the diary was in one piece, Voldemort couldn't die. When he was hit with the reflected killing curse, the diary kept him anchored to this world and he couldn't 'cross over.'" Harry used airquotes around the phrase 'cross over.'

"Yes, Harry. But I'm afraid that it is a bit more complicated than that. In my efforts to confirm whether the diary actually was a Horcrux, I began to investigate Tom's history in order to determine when, if ever, he came across information about Horcruxes." The headmaster hesitated for a minute. "I found a second Horcrux, Harry. A ring."

With dawning horror, Harry said, "He made more than one."

"Yes."

"How many?"

"I'm not entirely sure. During my investigation, I was able to obtain the memory of a very reluctant former Hogwarts professor. That professor revealed what he knew about horcruxes to a young Tom Riddle. During their conversation, Tom suggested the creation of multiple horcruxes. He suggested breaking a soul into seven pieces."

"Why seven?"

"As a student of arithmancy could tell you, Harry, seven is the most powerful number in all magic."

"So Voldemort made seven horcruxes," the vampire concluded.

"I believe that he _intentionally_ split his soul seven ways, but I do not know for sure. And we may not know for sure until we actually face him."

The way that the headmaster stressed the word 'intentionally' really caught Harry's attention. "And unintentionally?"

"I believe that when he attempted to kill you, a piece of his soul was blasted off and attached itself to you," the elderly wizard said in a rushed voice.

"'And attached itself to me?'" Harry repeated in a deliberately slow manner.

"Yes. Do you remember when I told you in your second year that Voldemort unintentionally passed some of his powers on to you? Upon later reflection and given the way your scar hurt in your fourth year, I theorized that it was actually a part of his soul that he passed to you. However, I believe that that piece no longer resides with you."

"And what has led you to form _that_ particular belief?"

"From my research, I found that Horcruxes are extremely difficult to destroy. It takes a nasty bit of work to destroy one. I have found a few methods, such as the killing curse. Another method is through exposure to vampire venom. The venom is extremely potent, so much so that it can actually melt glass."

The mention of the potency of vampire venom brought up awful memories of Harry's transformation. He remembered every moment of the process in excruciating detail.

"So you believe that my transformation into a vampire has destroyed whatever bit of Voldemort's soul that managed to attach to me," Harry summarized.

"Yes. I believe that we can test the theory rather easily."

"How?"

"A simple snake conjuring spell should suffice. If you are still capable of speaking parseltongue to the snake, then the fragment remains. If not . . ." the wizard trailed off.

Harry nodded his assent.

The headmaster pulled his wand from his robes. Harry could hear Carlisle and Jasper tense at the wizard's movement, even at the great distance he was from them.

"_Serpensortia_," the headmaster cast calmly.

A small green snake appeared on the ground in front of Harry. The vampire bent down and spoke to the serpent in quiet tones. "Hello, little snake."

After a few other attempts at communicating with the snake, the headmaster banished the creature to wherever it was summoned from.

"At least that's one problem solved," Harry said as he straightened back up. "I have to wonder though; did I retain my ability to do any other magic?"

"That, Harry, is a very good question. One that I cannot answer. There are no recorded instances of a wizard being turned into a vampire. At least, not any instances in which the Ministry didn't eradicate the vampire immediately after being turned."

The headmaster's statement alarmed Harry greatly. "So if other wizards find out that I've been turned-"

"Vampires are afforded certain rights and liberties under the law, but are forbidden from feeding on wizards. Any infraction of that rule results in immediate destruction. In the situations I just referenced, the vampires attacked one or more wizards immediately after returning to their senses following the transformation. So long as you do not attack a wizard or witch, your life should not be in danger from the Ministry. Nevertheless, I will extract an Unbreakable Vow from both Kingsley and Severus and all other members of the Order of the Phoenix that will prevent them from revealing your status to anyone. I will make the same vow to you to not reveal it."

Harry breathed an unnecessary sigh of relief at the headmaster's promise. "Thank you. Now, what about the rest of the Horcruxes?"

"Of the seven pieces that Voldemort _intended_ to break his own soul into, one piece resides within his body, one piece was in the ring, and one piece was in the diary. That leaves four pieces unaccounted for, though I believe that I've discovered the location of one of them."

"Well, let's go back to the ring for a moment. You said Horcruxes are very hard to destroy. How did you manage to destroy it?"

The headmaster gave a light chuckle. "I owe you doubly for the ring's destruction. The ring wasn't just any old ring. It was something that I sought for a very long time. I would have put it on my finger as soon as I'd seen it if I wasn't being overly cautious."

"You owe me for being overly cautious?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Yes, my boy. Knowing that you were gone and that it may be some time before I had a chance to pass on what I've learned about Tom—if I ever got the chance at all—I was extraordinarily carefully when searching for the Horcruxes. I was able to restrain myself from putting the ring on long enough to detect the protections that Tom had placed upon it. Had I simply put the ring on, I would most certainly have been killed. So I very likely owe my life to your absence.

"I also owe the destruction to you because it was you who made the means of the ring's destruction. The Sword of Gryffindor is composed of goblin metal. It absorbs the properties of many of the substances that it comes in contact with. When you battled the basilisk in your second year, the Sword absorbed the properties of the great snake's venom."

"And like vampire venom, the basilisk venom is powerful enough to destroy a Horcrux," Harry concluded.

"Once again, Harry, you are correct."

"So then, what about the next Horcrux?"

"I have found a cave that Tom Riddle terrorized some Muggle children in during his youth. I believe that it may be where a Horcrux is hidden."

"That's it? You think he might have used a cave because he terrorized some children there?" Harry pressed.

"The cave was where Tom first tortured Muggles and is, therefore, of significant importance to his history. Also, as you will see, reaching the cave would have required the use of a magic, and so he would have felt it to be a very secure hiding place for one of his sacred objects; reaching the cave would have to be the deliberate act of a witch of wizard. And third, and perhaps most importantly, there is the fact that it is one of the few obscure locales that I know for a fact he visited."

"What do you mean by that?" Harry pressed.

"Tom Riddle's childhood, not unlike your own, was very constrained. He grew up in an orphanage and, other than his time spent at Hogwarts, he was rarely able to pass beyond the gates of that orphanage before his graduation. I have already searched most of the other locations that I know he visited before he departed my school. This cave is one of the last places to search before I must begin to investigate the places he traveled to abroad."

"Alright then. When do we go?"

"Tomorrow night, if you are amiable. I would like the opportunity to exact those Vows before anything else," the old wizard said with a soft smile.

"Sounds like a plan."

**A/N:** For those of you who are curious, the destructive nature of vampire venom is canon to the "Twilight Saga." It is noted in book four that the venom in a vampire's eyes will melt contact lenses.


	48. Chapter 48

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Early-Frosts. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Early-Frosts for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 48: The Unbreakable Vow**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Forty-Seven – The Unbreakable Vow**

The meeting between the vampire and the headmaster ended shortly after they made their plans as to when and where they'd meet next. They agreed to meet just after sunset at the Hog's Head Inn and Pub in the village of Hogsmeade the following night.

Albus Dumbledore conjured a map with the location of Hogsmeade on it and gave it to the newborn vampire. Harry had always assumed that the village, much like Hogwarts, was unplottable. Clearly, that wasn't the case. Or else the old wizard had some ability to bypass that protection, either by virtue of magical prowess or by being the head of Hogwarts.

The pair walked in silence back to the Burrow where Harry was reunited with Carlisle and Jasper. The other two vampires were standing in the exact same spots as they had been when Harry had left them the better part of an hour before. The two wizards—Severus Snape and Kingsley Shacklebolt—were still positioned by the front door, but Harry noticed that they had each moved a few centimeters away from where he'd left them.

"So, has the little brat decided to do his part?" Snape asked as soon as the ancient-looking headmaster came within earshot.

"Severus," the headmaster admonished while Jasper quietly growled.

"Headmaster?" the tall, black Auror asked.

"Harry and I have reached an agreement about how to proceed," the blue-eyed wizard assured him. "I shall see you at the appointed time," he then said to Harry.

"I'll see you then," the youngest of the three vampires replied. "And do not forget the Vows."

The other two wizards by the door exchanged a worried glance at the mention of 'Vows', but said nothing.

"If your business is concluded for the evening, we will take our leave," Carlisle said as he turned away from the ramshackle home and walked away. Jasper and Harry followed after him.

The trio of vampires returned to London where Harry relayed the contents of his conversation with the headmaster to the rest of his family. They found the entire concept of Horcruxes to be both fascinating and frightening.

It was Rosalie, however, who had the first major question for Harry after he'd finished telling his story. "I don't understand this prophecy. If the only person that can kill Voldemort is you and the opposite it true as well—at least, that is how I'm interpreting the bit about 'either must die by the hand of the other'—then how is it that you're already dead?"

Harry opened his mouth to answer, but quickly closed it when he realized he had no answer for her question. He looked to Edward to see if his husband had anything to say about it, but the bronze-haired immortal was just as clueless as he was.

"Well, I've always thought that vampires are still alive, even if our hearts don't beat," Esme offered.

"She has a point," Carlisle concurred. "We still function. We think and eat. Our bodies produce venom and other venom-based fluids."

Emmett chuckled childishly at the mention of 'fluids.'

"We still love," Alice added as she leaned over against Jasper as he, in turned, wrapped his arms around his wife.

"Quite right," the doctor said. "I think, Rosalie, that you might be relying on a potentially inaccurate definition of what it means to die."

"What if that mean's the headmaster is wrong then?" Rosalie challenged.

"What do you mean?" Edward asked.

"What if the definition we are using for 'mark' is also wrong? What if the scar that Voldemort gave Harry isn't what is meant when the prophecy says 'mark him as his equal?'"

"What else could it be?" Emmett asked in confusion.

"I don't know, but if were not using a traditional definition of 'die,' I think we have to at least consider the possibility that the prophecy doesn't use a traditional definition of 'mark' either."

"What you're saying is that it could still be Neville that the prophecy refers to," Harry concluded. "Voldemort's servants tortured Neville's parents into insanity and that affected him greatly. If you can attribute the actions of the servant to the master, then maybe Voldemort has left a mark on Neville, just one that we can't see. And if that is the mark that the prophecy is referring to, it makes things significantly more complicated."

"I think that this reasoning is stretching things a bit," Edward argued.

"Maybe. But if it is meant to be Neville, then I'm still going to do my part in all of this. I'll destroy each and every one of the Horcuxes to make sure he's got the best possible chance when the time comes. That way Voldemort will have to operate without a safety net. Then, whichever one of us it is meant to be will be able to finish the bastard off. Even if I have to hold snake-face down to make sure Neville's got a clear shot, Voldemort is going to die," Harry said resolutely.

The group of vampires set out for Hogsmeade while it was still dark out. They agreed that it would be best to watch the Hog's Head during the day in order to ensure that the meeting wasn't a trap of some kind. Although Jasper assured everyone that the headmaster was honest in his promises to Harry, the empath could feel a great deal of animosity coming from Snape. There was, therefore, a risk that the potions professor could try and pull something behind the headmaster's back.

Finding the village wasn't difficult; however, the vampires did have to travel the last several kilometers on foot because Hogsmeade was a totally magical community. The vampires were also careful to remain in the woods that bordered the village so as not to be seen by any wizards or witches that might alert the Ministry of Magic to the presence of so many vampires in relatively close proximity to the school.

Harry wasn't sure where exactly the wooded area officially became the 'Forbidden Forest,' but he made sure to warn his family of the potential dangers in the forest. None of the vampires wanted to risk the possible consequences associated with feeding off of the blood of a unicorn. Emmett, however, was a little interested in seeing the acromantulas.

In the distance, Harry could see several of the towers of Hogwarts poking up above a hill in the southeastern sky. The sight filled Harry with a myriad of conflicting emotions. He wanted to see Hogwarts—the first place he'd ever considered to be his home—but, at the same time, he wanted to close that chapter of his life once and for all. Rather than focusing on what was and what might have been if he'd never fled Britain, Harry was much happier to lean his head against Edward's shoulder and think about the happy times the two had shared together. He knew that his husband could enjoy the memories as they played out in his mind.

When the sun finally set, the Cullen family left their comfortable positions in the trees. They didn't split up this time. Dressed in dark cloaks, the entire family moved silently and gracefully through the darkened streets of Hogsmeade towards the Hog's Head. Harry wondered if any of the residents of the few houses they passed on their way to the little pub would look out their windows, see the group, and assume that they were Death Eaters.

The Hog's Head was a dingy little dive, in Harry's opinion. The wooden structure looked so decrepit that Harry assumed that it was only magic that kept the building from collapsing in on itself. There was so much filth on the window that, even with his advanced senses, Harry couldn't see inside.

Despite the inability to see inside the Hog's Head, the eight vampires went inside the building without hesitation. The interior matched the exterior: dirty and in disrepair. There was so much dirt and grime on the floor that Harry wondered briefly if there was actually a floor down there or if it was simply the ground he was walking on.

"This place smells like," Emmett stopped mid-sentence to sniff the air, "goat."

Alice giggled at Emmett's statement and the way the elderly barkeep shot the largest of the cloaked group a sour and reproachful glare at the statement.

The irritated looking bartender motioned for the group to come up to the bar. "So you'd be _his_ group then, wouldn't ya?"

"If by 'him' you mean Albus Dumbledore, then yes, we are his group," Carlisle answered.

The bartended gave a grunt before motioning up a set of narrow, decaying stairs off to his left. "Up there. First door on your right."

"Thank you," the vampire patriarch said before moving towards the stairs; the bartender didn't reply with a 'you're welcome.'

The eight vampires followed the barkeep's instructions and went up the stairs and to the indicated door. All eight of the vampires could hear the quite talking of two individuals inside the room. They didn't really care, though; the wizard hadn't known that there would be eight vampires attending the meeting, so it wasn't as if there was any room for them to criticize his decision to have someone with him for backup. What they were very curious about, however, was how the headmaster and his guest had gotten inside the Hog's Head without the very attentive vampires noticing.

Beyond the door was a sparely decorated and dimly lit room; the only source of light was a roaring fire. Harry assumed that the headmaster and his companion arrived through the fireplace.

"Headmaster," Carlisle greeted the old wizard who was standing next to a wooden table. Despite addressing Dumbledore, Carlisle was focused on the second of the room's two occupants.

"Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody," Harry answered. "The real one, I'm sure."

Moody was exactly as Harry remembered his imposter to be: scarred, limping, and with a magical eye spinning wildly in its socket. "Potter," he greeted gruffly. "You could have left the rest of your . . . _family_ in their coffins."

Harry clenched his hands at his side and gritted his teeth to stop himself from lashing out at the old Auror for his slight.

"Harry," the headmaster greeted. "Would you care to introduce me to your family?" he asked, clearly hoping to defuse the tensing situation.

Harry pointed to each member of his family and introduced them. None of the vampires removed their hoods to show their faces. "You know Carlisle and Jasper. And you've, uh, _met_ my husband, Edward. This is my mother Esme; my brother, Emmett; and my sisters, Alice and Rosalie."

"A pleasure," the headmaster said. "Now, before anything else, we have the little matter of the Unbreakable Vow."

"And how do we go about doing that?" Harry asked.

"You and I will clasp one another's forearms. Alastor will act as our Bonder—the individual that will cast the magic that will bind the Vow to my life. You will ask me three questions, each of which I must answer in the affirmative. Once the three promises are made, the vow will be formed and any infraction on my part will end my life."

Harry extended his hand and allowed the headmaster to clasp his forearm. The vampire grasped Albus Dumbledore's forearm and then turned to the Auror expectantly.

"Oh, yes, before I forget," the older of the two wizards said as he reached into his robes and pulled out a scrap of paper. "These are the terms of the vow that I have had the members of the Order swear to me. If you wish, you may use them."

Harry took the paper, read it over, and then nodded his agreement. The wording seemed a bit odd to him, but he quickly decided that the wording must have been precisely chosen.

Mad-Eye Moody placed the tip of his wand on the linked arms.

Harry read from the parchment in his free hand, inserting the headmaster's name where there were blank stops in the writing. "Will you, Albus Dumbledore, keep secret any and all knowledge you have learned regarding the individual named at birth as Harry James Potter since his arrival at the Burrow on August 29 of this year?"

"I will," the elderly wizard answered.

Once the promise left the headmaster's lips, a thin ribbon or flame emerged from Moody's wand and entwined itself around both Harry and Albus Dumbledore's hands and wrists.

"Will you, Albus Dumbledore, to the best of your ability, prevent anyone else from revealing information you have learned regarding the individual named at birth as Harry James Potter since his arrival at the Burrow on August 29 of this year?"

"I will."

A second ribbon of flame joined the first.

"And will you, Albus Dumbledore, to the best of your ability, work to prevent the proliferation of any information pertaining to location, status, or family life of the individual named at birth as Harry James Potter?"

"I will," the headmaster a third time.

A third and final ribbon of flame joined the first two, completing a glowing chain that bound the headmaster's promises to his very lifeforce. The flame-like bands faded away after a few moments and the vampire and the wizard released their hold on one another.

"Well," Emmett said as he clapped his hands together, "that takes care of that. What's next?"

"Next, we go and find something of great importance."

Harry narrowed his eyes at the way the headmaster refused to say the word 'Horcrux.' "Moody doesn't know what we're looking for, does he?"

The Auror huffed for a moment before Albus Dumbledore answered. "No, Harry, he does not. Nor will he be coming with us on our journey."

"And neither will your bloodsucking friends," Moody snapped.

"No way in hell are we just going to let Harry go alone with him," Emmett said.

"Is there some particular reason why you want it to just be just you and Harry?" Carlisle asked.

"The only reason why I wish to limit the number of people going is that I must apparate there and I can only take one, maybe two, other people with me," the older wizard answered the vampire. "Side-along apparition is difficult enough with one inexperienced wizard. With two inexperienced individuals . . ."

"So it's us then," Edward said as he stepped forward and took his husband's hand.

Albus Dumbledore looked over at the vampire. "I believe that that is not unreasonable."

"Headmaster-" the Auror attempted to interrupt before he was silenced by a firm glance from the headmaster. Mad-Eye looked very disgruntled. "Fine. But I'm staying here with the rest of them. If you don't come back by morning, then I'll take it out of their hides."

Emmett and Rosalie softy joked with one another in low voices that Harry could only hear because of his enhanced senses. Clearly, neither thought Moody capable of holding his own in a fight against one vampire, let alone six of them.

The headmaster extended his arms for the two vampire lovers to take hold of. Once they had a firm, but not crushing, grip on Albus Dumbledore, he apparated them away.


	49. Chapter 49

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 49: The Seaside Cave**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Forty-Eight – The Seaside Cave**

Harry had never apparated anywhere before. He'd traveled by broomstick, floo, and portkey and he'd seen a group of Aurors apparate in the debacle after the Quidditch World Cup, but this was a totally new experience. He felt a bit like someone was trying to force him through a garden hose. It was odd, but neither painful nor even overly uncomfortable.

After a few moments, the sensation ended and Harry found himself standing on a rocky surface. The young vampire examined his surroundings. He was on a relatively small, flat outcropping of rock that extended from a sheer cliff face. The surface of the cliff face was so flat and smooth that Harry doubted any normal human could have scaled it without high quality climbing gear or exceptional skill. As the wizard turned to look at the treacherous waves behind his back, he noticed some slightly less perilous cliffs.

Although there were some clouds in the sky, the full moon was currently unobstructed. When Edward pulled his hood back from his face, his skin sparkled lightly in the beams of moonlight. Harry followed his husband's lead and pulled his hood back. The headmaster already knew that he was a vampire, so there was no harm in showing his face.

"Voldemort visited this place when he was young?" Edward asked Albus Dumbledore over the roar of the waves.

"As Tom Riddle, he visited a nearby village with the other children from his orphanage," the old wizard explained as he surveyed the area through his half-moon spectacles. "It is beyond those cliffs," the headmaster motioned absently to the second set of cliffs that Harry had noticed. "He took two of his fellow orphans with him on this trek to this treacherous spot and into a cave somewhere nearby. The experiences—both the trek and whatever monstrous things Tom did to them in the cave—left both of the other children shaken for years."

Edward softly elbowed his husband in the ribs and then nodded his head down towards the water. Harry could see a meter-wide opening in the side of the cliff wall that began a few meters above the water's surface and extended out of sight beneath the waves. It took the newborn a moment to realize that that was what the headmaster was likely searching for; he sometimes forgot that humans lacked the precise senses of a vampire.

"Is that it?" Harry asked, motioning to the little gap.

Professor Dumbledore strained his eyes in the dark before pulling his wand out of his robes. Using a silent spell—likely _lumos_, Harry realized—the wizard effectively turned his wand into a torch. When the beam of light fell upon the opening, the headmaster smiled. "Yes, Harry, I believe that that is it."

With the agility of a far younger man, the wizard leapt into the water. The wizard's still-lit wand was clenched tightly between his teeth as he performed a breast stroke.

Harry and Edward exchanged amused glances before removing their cloaks and following the headmaster into the water. Vampires had a distinct advantage in the water over almost all other creatures. They were like sharks, able to move through the fluid at frighteningly fast speeds. The two lovers were able to overtake Headmaster Dumbledore in less than a second and, in the next heartbeat, were emerging from the water onto another flat piece of rock on the other side of the little opening.

In the few seconds they had to wait for their companion, the vampires were able to thoroughly examine the space. It was only a few meters wide and almost perfectly circular. There was nothing interesting or distinct to Harry about the little space, but Edward was sniffing the air with an intrigued expression on his face.

"Edward?" the darker-haired immortal questioned softly as Albus Dumbledore emerged from the water.

"I smell something. There is air flowing from this rock face," Edward said as he pointed to one section of rock. "There is a door or some other opening hidden around here."

Dumbledore, whose clothes were still bone dry despite the swim, passed Harry to stand beside the older vampire. He stretched out his hand, closed his eyes, and began to mutter softly in strange languages that neither of the vampires had ever heard before. One moment it sounded as if the old wizard was simply clacking his tongue and the next he was speaking in a language that sounded like a human screaming in a high pitched tone while submerged in water.

"You wouldn't have been so crude, would you?" the head of Hogwarts asked aloud as he reopened his eyes.

"Were you talking to me?" Harry asked uncertainly.

The headmaster turned to his two companions and looked at them as if he had momentarily forgotten that they were even with him. "I'm sorry, boys, I have gone on these sorts of expeditions by myself for so long that I've gotten into the habit of speaking my thoughts aloud. I believe that Voldemort has placed a rather rudimentary protection on the door." The silver-haired wizard jabbed his wand at the rock wall. When the tip of the wand made contact with rock, a bright line appeared and quickly moved to outline an archway that even the vampires had been unable to make out before it was illuminated. The silver lines that outlined the door were only present for a moment before they faded away, as if someone turned off a light behind the door.

"And the protection is what exactly?" Edward asked.

"Blood."

Harry and Edward exchanged concerned glances at the headmaster's pronouncement.

"Voldemort has ensured that whoever wishes to enter must weaken him or herself by sacrificing a bit of their own blood to make the doorway open. He is as foolish as ever. He still believes that a little bit of pain and the loss of a bit of blood are some of the most terrible things that can happen," the wizard said as he shook his head. "I would ask, boys, that you hold your breaths until I'm finished. Look away, if you believe that the sight might prove to be too much of a temptation. I will cut myself, bleed a bit on the wall, and then heal the wound and vanish any remaining blood."

"We've both fed recently, so holding our breaths should be all we need to do" Edward explained.

The headmaster nodded sagely before turning around and conjuring a shining knife. As planned, both Harry and Edward stopped breathing as soon as the blade appeared. The old man then raised one of his sleeves and, in one quick motion, made a clean slash on his arm. There was a flash of crimson as blood momentarily flew from the wound and landed on the rocky wall. The old wizard then used his wand to heal the wound and vanish the knife and all of the drops of blood that landed someplace other than the wall.

The blood remained on the wall like red paint for a minute before it was slowly absorbed into the rock. Once the blood was gone, the archway appeared once more. This time, however, the border shined far brighter for a few seconds before the rock that it was outlining disappeared, leaving a passageway into a dark cavern beyond.

Remembering that the headmaster could only see a little bit in the darkened cave, Harry decided to describe the room to the old wizard as the trio entered. "The room is kind of egg-shaped. There's a crescent moon-shaped area of rock on the right that we can walk on, but the rest of the chamber is filled with water. There's an island of some kind off in the middle of the little lake."

"Anything unusual about the island?" Dumbledore asked intently.

"Yes," Harry answered. "There's what appears to be a basin of some kind on it. I can't tell what's in it from this angle, but there's a green glow."

"And there are bodies in the water," Edward said.

The younger vampire's gaze drifted to the water. The cave was very dark, but his vampire eyes could still make out some humanoid shapes. The bodies—if that was indeed what they were—were floating a few feet below the surface of the pool. There were about a dozen that he could see, but there might have been more in the deeper depths of the water that Harry couldn't make out.

The headmaster pointed his wand out in front of himself and cast another illumination charm to light his way. "Well, let us see what Lord Voldemort has left for us, shall we?"

"I hate to suggest the obvious, headmaster, but can't you just summon the vile thing?" Edward asked.

"I suppose it couldn't hurt to try. _Accio_ Horcux!"

There was a loud metallic clang off in the direction of the island before one of the dark forms leapt up from the water. When the form came out of the water, Harry was able to get a good look at it. Bloated and hideous, it was a naked female corpse. Much of its dark hair was missing and its eyes, though open, had a milky white fog disguising their natural color. The corpse flew straight up from the water and then straight back down again, as if pulled into the air by a cord and then unceremoniously dropped back down. It was like a child raising a puppet in the air only to cut its strings a moment later.

"What in the world?" Harry asked.

"Why would Voldemort use a corpse to protect the Horcrux?" Edward wondered aloud.

"An inferius, perhaps," the headmaster said. When the old wizard noticed that neither of the vampires knew what he was talking about, he elaborated. "Foul creatures created through necromancy. They are corpses enchanted to serve the will of their master. They aren't intelligent and can only follow simple commands. In this case, I would wager one of every flavor of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans that the command they were given is to drag any trespassers into the lake."

"So we can expect them to attack us as soon as we get the damnable thing?" Harry asked.

"Perhaps. Or they may attack if we disturb the water," the bearded wizard said.

"Well, I guess Edward and I can swim across. The inferiuses are probably too slow to catch us," Harry suggested.

"Lord Voldemort would almost certainly have left a safer means of traveling across the lake for himself, should he ever need to check on or remove the Horcrux. It may take some time to find, but I have faith that we will succeed. There will be no need to disturb the creatures," Dumbledore said. "And the plural of 'inferius' is 'inferi'."

Edward snickered at the way the headmaster corrected Harry's grammar. Pouting a little, the newborn started to walk along the crescent moon-shaped rock, his husband and his former headmaster following a few steps behind.

All three trespassers were looking very carefully for any sign of a means of crossing the lake. For the most part, Harry kept his eyes on the shore. Occasionally, his glace would stray to the deeper areas of the water where he could see the inferi floating, waiting to pull him into the murky depths of the pool.

When he reached the middle of the crescent-shaped land mass, Harry detected a new scent in the air. He stopped abruptly and began to focus on the faint odor. It was something familiar. He struggled for a moment with the name of the scent on the tip of the tongue.

"Harry?" Edward asked after his husband.

"Metal. Copper, I think."

The older vampire moved to stand next to his husband and joined in sniffing the air. Almost in perfect unison, the two vampires raised their left hands and rested them on what felt like a cold, invisible chain suspended in midair.

The headmaster beamed at the two. "Wonderful! An excellent find!" The old wizard put out his light and then tapped his wand on a space between the two vampire's hands. The green coppery chain quickly became visible.

"Should we give it a tug?" Edward asked the wizard.

"A thoughtful offer, but I believe I can take the work out of it for you," the headmaster replied. He tapped the chain once more and it began to slide through the vampires' fingers and coil itself neatly on the floor of the cave.

Harry and Edward released the chain and turned to look into the dark water. From the murky depths, a shape began to form. After a few seconds, the shape became clear: it was a small boat.

The trio examined the boat once it reached the surface. It wasn't very big; there was no way all three of them could possibly fit into it. The headmaster and one of the vampires could fit into it, but not all three. Perhaps one of the vampires could lean over the side and hold on to the other vampire, but it was doubtful that that strategy would work without one or both of them falling overboard.

"Looks like we need to dust off that whole swimming idea again," Harry said dryly.

"Or you and the headmaster cross and then I can use the chain to bring the boat and back so that I can cross," was Edward's suggestion.

"Or we can do that," Harry lightly conceded.

"Sounds like a crackerjack idea to me," the headmaster said.

Harry boarded the boat first and was soon followed by the wizard. Neither the wizard nor the vampire needed to do anything to make the boat cross the lake; it magically started its trip as soon as Dumbledore was aboard. Edward watched the boat very carefully, each ready to spring into action at the slightest sign of trouble. To his relief, the boat reached the little island without incident. Once the Harry and the headmaster had gone ashore and no inferi attacked, Edward reached up, took hold of the chain, and began to pull the boat back.

"That's odd," the bronze-haired vampire said as he continued to pull on the chain.

Despite the distance between them, Edward and Harry could still hear one another as though they were standing right next to one another.

"What?" Harry asked his husband.

"The boat's resisting. I can feel it trying to go back to the island."

"Perhaps it isn't meant to return without a passenger," Harry suggested before quickly discarding the idea. "Except, that doesn't make any sense. If the inferi pulled someone under, then it would be left without a passenger anyway."

"Maybe the magic can detect the headmaster on the island," Edward suggested as he gave one last tug on the chain and brought the little boat flush with the side of the rocky shore. He boarded the little boat and then waited as it returned to the island.

The headmaster was once again lost in his own thoughts by the time Edward joined the old wizard and Harry on the island. The basin was filled with an emerald green liquid. Waving his wand over it, the old wizard looked like he was trying his best to cast every spell he knew on it. And failing to achieve any results.

"The Horcrux is in that?" Edward asked.

"Yes, I believe it is. Unfortunately, I cannot reach through this fluid to pick it up; an invisible barrier prevents it. Nor can I vanish, part, cast aside, charm, transfigure, or otherwise affect the liquid by any other means. I am left to conclude that this liquid is a potion and may only be removed by drinking it."

"You're going to drink it?" Harry asked in alarm. "What if it's poisonous?"

"Voldemort would not want to kill whoever made it this close to the Horcrux. Hurt and disable, but not kill. He'd want the opportunity to question the trespasser himself to learn how he or she learned of his secret." The headmaster conjured a pewter goblet and dipped it in the liquid. "See here: the only way to pierce the invisible barrier is with a goblet. I tried to pass through it with my hand and the silver knife, but I failed. The goblet, however, has passed the barrier and removed some of the potion."

"Just dump it out," Edward suggested.

The headmaster followed the suggestion and dumped the green fluid on the ground. The fluid hit the floor and disappeared. The basin then replenished the potion. "Alas, I fear that there is no choice but to drink it."

"Then give it to me," Harry said. "If you come back messed up because of a potion, Moody will go nuts and try to attack my family before we have a chance to explain. And if it is poison, then it won't be able to kill me."

"But it can still hurt you," Edward interjected darkly as he moved to stand between Harry and the headmaster.

Edward was right, Harry knew. Although a vampire's digestive system wasn't really designed to handle anything but blood, it was still capable of digesting other substances in the same way a human body can digest non-food items. It had become almost cliché for Harry to equate a vampire eating anything but blood to a human eating dirt, but it was accurate. The other substance wasn't appetizing, tasted awful, provided the vampire with no sustenance, and was harder and took longer to digest, but it could still be broken down.

"I drink it as quickly as possible and then, once you get the Horcrux from the bottom of the basin, make me throw up as much of it as possible," Harry said.

"Harry," the headmaster began, "the effects of this potion may be far faster acting than you expect. It may begin to affect you as soon as it is in your body; it may not need to be digested before it takes its toll on you."

"Harry's idea is a decent one," Edward said reluctantly. "But I have a slightly better one," he added. Then, in one quick motion, he took the goblet from the headmaster and began to drink the potion.

Harry hadn't anticipated Edward stealing the potion from Albus Dumbledore and so was unprepared to stop him. By positioning himself right next to the headmaster, Edward had effectively ensured that the newborn wouldn't be able to stop him before drinking the first mouthful, even with his faster-than-normal vampiric speed.

Edward's face contorted as he swallowed the emerald potion. He didn't miss a beat, however, as he filled the goblet once again and continued to drink.

It was with increasing horror and reluctant resignation that Harry watched his husband drink more and more of the potion. The newborn slowly moved to join Edward. When the basin was about three-quarters empty, Edward began to sway. Harry reached out and supported the other vampire's weight. There couldn't have been more than three goblets worth of potion left when Edward clenched his eyes shut and began to grit his teeth.

"Edward?"

"Please . . . Please . . . I'm so sorry . . ." he said quietly. The bronze-haired vampire's hand was shaking as he attempted to fill the goblet again.

"He's hallucinating," the headmaster said as he steadied Edward's hand. "Help him finish, Harry."

The younger vampire looked at the goblet in disgust and briefly considered forcing Edward to throw up immediately, but he forced the other immortal to drink anyway. If Edward didn't finish the potion, then they'd just have to start over. The sooner the potion was finished, the sooner they'd have the Horcux and Harry could force his husband to regurgitate the vile concoction.

Edward continued to mutter with his eyes closed as he drank the next goblet full of potion. "I'm so sorry I left . . . Please forgive me . . . Don't stop fighting . . ."

Soon Harry was forcing another goblet of potion down his husband's throat. As the headmaster began to fill the goblet another time, the newborn vampire could hear the sound of the cup scraping the bottom of the basin.

Harry didn't give the final goblet to Edward, instead he just placed it on the ground; there was no need for Edward to drink the last goblet when the basin was already empty. "Take the damn thing out of the basin," he ordered quickly. As soon as he saw Dumbledore remove an object—a locket, he believed— from the basin, Harry flipped his husband over and put as much pressure on his lower stomach as possible.

One swift, hard motion caused Edward to regurgitate a combination of the emerald green potion, animal blood, and venom onto the island's ground. Harry performed the action again and again until the fluid coming out of Edward's mouth was only animal blood and venom.

Harry turned his husband back over. "Edward, can you hear me?" he asked in concern as he hoped the hallucinations had subsided.

The older vampire didn't answer, but his eyelids did snap open after a few seconds. Edward's eyes weren't their usual amber color, however. They were pitch black, meaning that he was very hungry.

Edward was perfectly still for a few more seconds before he moved to try and attack the headmaster. Fortunately, Harry's arms were still wrapped around his midsection and so the younger vampire was able hold Edward back. Despite his superior strength, Edward's desperate motions were very difficult for Harry to control.

"Get to the boat!" Harry shouted to the headmaster as he struggled to maintain his grip.

Albus Dumbledore obeyed and moved to the little transport with surprising speed.

As Harry struggled to keep his husband from killing the old wizard, he desperately tried to think of a solution to the situation. Judging by the color of his eyes, Edward was starving. He was far hungrier than Harry had ever seen him and the only way to bring him back to his senses was to give him blood. Unfortunately, there was no blood to be had other than the headmaster's and, perhaps, the inferi's. And Harry didn't want to risk the potential consequences of allowing Edward to feed on any blood—assuming that inferi even had blood—of a creature that was totally under Lord Voldemort's thrall.

Then, the younger vampire realized there was another source of blood: his body. He'd fed when Edward had, so he had a significant amount of animal blood in his system. And there was also human blood still lingering in his body. Just a few centimeters beneath his hard skin was a mixture of animal blood, human blood, and vampire venom.

Putting as much effort as he could muster into it, Harry forced Edward around to face him and then pressed the older vampire's mouth against his neck. He knew that his husband was feral at the moment and would lash out at him anyway he could. Sure enough, Edward sank his teeth into Harry's neck. There were few things that could truly hurt or cause permanent damage to a vampire, and the teeth of another vampire was one of them. Harry managed to keep himself from screaming as his husband's teeth went deeper and deeper into his neck.


	50. Chapter 50

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 50: RAB**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Forty-Nine – R.A.B.**

Edward's teeth sank deeper and deeper into his husband's shoulder. For a moment, Harry was certain that the older vampire was about to take a chunk out of him. But the teeth soon stopped going into his body and held their position.

Harry soon felt a new feeling amidst the near blinding pain in his shoulder; it was the feeling of Edward feeding on him. The bronze-haired immortal had dug his teeth in deep enough that he had hit the well of blood of and venom and was sucking every drop out that he could.

For several seconds, the younger vampire forced his mouth to remain tightly closed. After Edward had had a mouthful or two, Harry considered trying to get his attention in the hopes of getting him to stop. But the pain in his neck was still too great; he didn't think he could try to say anything without it coming out as an unintelligible scream. He clenched his eyes shut and carved great pieces of the island away with his claws in a futile effort to distract himself. Soon, however, necessity and desperation took over and forced him to try.

"Edward," Harry choked out. He was shocked to hear how much higher his voice sounded when compared to normal. "P-Please stop," he practically begged.

Harry's husband didn't stop. He just kept drinking deeply from the younger vampire that he now had pinned against the island's craggy floor. The more Edward drank, the hungrier Harry began to feel. This wasn't going as he'd hoped at all. He'd figured that just a couple of mouthfuls of his blood would be enough to pull Edward out of his frenzied state and tide him over until they could go out hunting. But the vampire wasn't stopping.

"Edward!" Harry screamed when he was finally pushed to his limit.

Harry next felt himself tossed away from Edward and to the edge of the island. He heard a scrambling sound and the light 'ker-plunk' of something hitting the water.

The newborn cracked his eyes open to see what had happened. His husband had moved from the center of island to the edge farthest away form Harry. Edward was now curled into a fetal position.

Harry's shoulder still hurt like hell. There were two deep crescent-shaped marks on the juncture of his neck and shoulder; they mirrored the set on the other side that Harry had gotten from Edward when he was turned. The deep spaces formed by Edward's powerful jaws were slowing filling with a fluid that resembled watered-down wine. Harry knew it was the mixture of blood and venom trying to heal the damage that had been done to his body. The wound would heal, but the scars of the attack would remain on him forever.

Slowly, Harry sat upright. He took a moment to readjust his shirt to hide the wound from view before slowly starting to crawl over to where his husband was huddled.

"Edward?"

The other vampire didn't respond. Harry drew a little bit nearer, but his husband still refused to acknowledge his presence. The newborn was beginning to worry that it wasn't a conscious choice on the other vampire's part, but rather a side effect of the potion.

"Harry!" a voice called from the shore.

The injured vampire whipped his head around—an action that caused the pain in his neck to spike momentarily—to find that Albus Dumbledore had not left the cavern as he'd thought. The old wizard had crossed the eerie lake and then stood to watch the scene between the young lovers.

"Harry!" the wizard called again. "The inferi!"

"What?" Harry asked in alarm. He refocused his attention towards the lake and could hear the wet sounds of the inferi attempting to scale the side of the island.

"The goblet was knocked into the water while you struggled! They are coming!" the headmaster shouted.

The first inferius pulled itself up onto the side of the island a few feet away from Harry. Acting purely on instinct, the vampire launched himself at the creature. He stopped a few feet shy of the monstrosity and then swiped at it with one set of his bone-like claws. The inferius's chest crumpled in on itself as Harry caught it with his attack and sent it spiraling away from the island and out into the lake.

By the time the first of the inferi was defeated, three more began to pull themselves up onto the island. Harry moved and began to engage each of them in turn. But it seemed that for every one he defeated, three more replaced it. The young vampire was soon surrounded and overwhelmed.

One of the foul creatures took hold of Harry's midsection while another wrapped its arms around Harry's right arm. Harry managed to throw off the one that took hold of his arm just as two latched themselves onto his legs. The creatures were weak and couldn't really hurt him, but that didn't stop the vampire from panicking at being mobbed.

Half of the inferi that were attempting to force Harry into the lake were ripped away in an instant. Edward had entered the fray and was attacking the inferi with a rage of ferocity that Harry had not seen since Edward and his brothers protected him from Victoria. One by one, Edward tore the creatures apart. He broke bones, removed limbs, and pummeled each and every inferius until they were nothing but a collection of mangled body parts floating in the dark lake.

Edward turned in the general direction of his husband, but kept is eyes downcast. He hesitated for some time before he was able to ask a simple question. "Are you alright?"

"A little hungry," Harry answered. "Nothing that a buck or two won't fix. How about you?" He silently berated himself as soon as he heard his voice ask the question. Of course Edward wasn't alright. Then again, Edward probably berated himself in the same manner just a few seconds before, Harry realized. He then berated himself for realizing that because he knew that Edward heard his ramblings in his mind.

Harry's husband refused to either answer him or to meet his eyes.

"I think we got what we came for. We can go now," Harry said after a few seconds of unbearably uncomfortable silence.

The younger vampire led the way as they swam across the lake to join the headmaster. As he moved through the water like a shark, he noticed a final intact body at the bottom of the lake. It was odd, he thought, that there would be one and only one inferius that did not take part in the melee. It was then that he realized that the body was of a victim, not attacker.

"So, what did he use?" Harry asked the headmaster as he emerged from the lake. "It looked like a locket."

"Oh, I am certain that Tom used a locket, but not the one we've just retrieved," Professor Dumbledore replied.

"Huh?"

The old wizard fished the small golden locket Harry had seen out of his robes. "There was locket in the basin, Harry. But alas, it isn't the Horcrux. I have seen the locket that Voldemort coveted, and this is not it." The old man opened the locket and removed a note. "There is also the matter of this missive. The note reads: 'To the Dark Lord: I know I will be dead long before you read this, but I want you know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more.' It is simply signed, 'R.A.B.'"

"Who in the world is 'R.A.B.'?" Harry asked.

"I do not know," the headmaster said. "When I return to Hogwarts, I will consult the registry to see what students have attended in the past whose initials match those of the note. Once we have the list of suspects, I will see what I can do about finding writing exemplars. Old essays kept hidden away by Professor Binns, perhaps. We will discover this prior trespasser's name in no time, I'm sure."

At the description of the note's author as being a 'prior trespasser,' Harry remembered the final body he had just seen lying at the bottom of the lake. "Headmaster, there is something at the bottom of the lake. A clothed man with dark hair; definitely not an inferi."

"The wizard who got to the Horcurx before us, perhaps," the headmaster mused. "Or someone who failed in his attempt."

"I'll go retrieve the body," Harry said. "If it is this 'R.A.B.', then maybe he'll still have the Horcrux on him."

The newborn moved back to the edge of the lake. When he passed his husband, he did his best to meet his eyes, but Edward's remained fixed on the ground. As he walked, Harry thought desperately towards his husband, begging him ot not shut him out.

Harry was just about to plunge into the water when Edward raced by him. It appeared that Edward was determined to do just about everything he could to assist Harry, but wasn't willing to go so far as to actually talk to him about what had happened. At least, not yet.

The older vampire returned to the surface of the water after about two minutes. He propped one hand on the side of the shore and, with what appeared to be no effort at all, hoisted himself onto the shore. The corpse from the bottom of the lake was cradled in his free arm.

Whatever magic was in the icy water that prevented the faces of the inferi from decomposing had also preserved the face of the corpse amazingly well. Harry knew it must be magic because even the cold water wasn't capable of slowing the rate of decay so much.

The corpse was that of a wizard who couldn't have been more than a year or two out of Hogwarts. He looked like he was handsome when he was alive because, even in death, his face looked haughty and aristocratic. There was something familiar about his features, but Harry couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Great Merlin," the headmaster said breathlessly as soon as he got a look at the face of the trespasser.

"You know him?" Harry asked as he watched his husband place the body on the ground and then take several steps away from both the body and Harry.

"I _knew_ him," the headmaster corrected. "Though now I feel as if I did not know him at all."

"The vague and cryptic statements are starting to get old," Harry said with ill-concealed frustration.

"That is the body of Sirius Black's younger brother, Regulus," the headmaster said as he shook his head. "Regulus Arcturus Black, our mysterious R.A.B."

"Sirius's brother," Harry said aloud.

"He was a Death Eater, Harry. We had always believed that he was killed by Voldemort himself after getting cold feet. Sirius always said that the boy lacked the stomach for the sort of nightmares Voldemort dabbled in. It appears, however, that he worked against Voldemort, at least for a time."

Harry stared at the body for several long moments contemplating his godfather. He wondered what he thought of his brother's death. "We should take the body with us."

"A noble sentiment, Harry. I believe that, in light of all this, Sirius might like the opportunity to lay his brother to rest properly. Given that the fake Horcrux was still at the bottom of the basin, Tom probably does not know of Regulus's fate; there should be no danger of exposing our presence here to our enemies by returning the body to Sirius." The wizard fell silent for a moment before checking the man's pockets. "Alas, he does not have the real Horcrux with him. Though, in retrospect, I should not expected him to have it. Had he had the Horcrux with him, it would have been susceptible to my summoning charm earlier. Still, nowing that it was Regulus that removed it from the basin may give us a clue to its ultimate fate. An associate who came with him may have taken it, for example."

The old wizard conjured a large blanket that Harry then used to carefully wrap the body up. Edward assisted his young husband in the task, but kept his hands from ever making contact with Harry's. Once the body was wrapped up, the wizard flicked his wand at it and caused it to levitate. It floated behind him as he made his was towards the entrance of the cave.

"We cannot apparate or portkey from inside this cave, so I must reopen the door. Will you both be okay when I cut myself once more?"

Harry turned to Edward. The older vampire said nothing, but did nod his head. The darker haired immortal could also detect it when the vampire stopped breathing.

"Yes, we're ready," Harry said as he too stopped breathing.

The headmaster opened the doorway the same way he had before, left the cave, and then swam to the small outcropping of rock that he'd first apparated the trio to. Both of the vampires silently followed the old wizard and the body that was levitating behind him.

After returning to the outcropping that they'd first transported to, the headmaster silently transfigured the corpse of Regulus black into a small trinket before pocketing it. Professor Dumbledore then extended his hands and let the two vampires take hold of him before apparating back to the little room in the Hog's Head that they had departed from several hours earlier.

When they arrived back at the inn, Moody immediately began to look the headmaster over for any sign that the vampires had harmed him. Harry's new family, however, were as still as statues. They could tell that something had transpired between the couple, most likely because of the scent of blood and venom on Harry's shoulder and Edward's breath. To their credit, no one said anything.

"I believe, Harry, that this concludes our expedition for the evening. I will meet with Sirius later and tell him of what we discovered. I will also see if he has any information about the genuine article that can help us."

"Sounds good, headmaster," the headmaster's former pupil said absently. "When should we meet next?"

"It has been a very long night. And I suspect it will get longer yet. So, let us say the evening after next. Same time, same place."

"I'll see you then," Harry replied before making for the door. He wasn't interested in making small talk with Moody or rehashing the events of the evening with his family at the moment. He was interested in two things and two things only: his husband and his hunger.

The group of vampires moved swiftly through the darkness that encased Hogsmeade village. They went straight to the forest without delay.

As soon as Edward reached the threshold of the forest, he spoke to Harry without looking back at him. "I need to hunt. I will find my own way back to the hotel later." Then, he took off as fast as he could for the heart of the woods.

"Damnit," the youngest of the vampires cursed as his husband ran from him. He turned back to look at his family. Jasper was standing closest to him with a very concerned expression on his face. Because he was the closest, that was who Harry addressed. "Edward and I have some things to work out. Like he said, we'll find our own way back to the hotel, so don't wait for us. We'll talk later." Without waiting for a reply, Harry took off after his brooding mate.


	51. Chapter 51

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 51: A Heart to Heart**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Fifty – A Heart-to-Heart**

Harry raced through the forest after his husband, silently cursing with every leap and bound. He loved his husband, he really did. But sometimes, Edward's tendency to brood about Harry's safety drove the younger vampire up the wall.

It was fairly apparent to Harry as soon as he took off into the forest that there was no way he and Edward were going to have the opportunity to talk until after they'd both fed. So he opted for shadowing the older vamipire's movements; he and Edward each hunted and ate their fill, but Harry was careful to give his mate a wide berth. The darker-haired vampire kept himself far enough away from Edward that the older vampire was given his space; however, not once did Harry allow his husband to leave his sight.

When he was ready, Edward returned to Harry. For the first time since before the bronze-haired vampire had fed off of him, Harry was able to see his eyes. They were no longer the pitch black color that denoted extreme hunger, but had mostly returned to their normal amber color. Mostly, but not completely; there was a slight tinge of red from the human blood he'd taken from Harry. But there was something else in Edward's eyes that Harry recognized all too well: shame.

"Better?" Harry asked from the seat he'd taken at the foot of an especially large tree.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Don't do that," Edward said sullenly. "Don't pretend that it's nothing."

"Why? It was nothing," Harry replied.

"Harry-"

"No, Edward. I don't want to hear the latest round of 'I've failed in my manly man responsibility of protecting my mate.' I can take care of myself."

"But I did fail," the older vampire said as he ran his fingers through his copper hair in frustration. "I promised you that I'd never do anything stupid or foolish again that would get you hurt. _I broke my wedding vows to you!_"

"But you didn't. One of us had to drink the potion and suffer its effects. You protected me from whatever weird hallucinations it caused. You also protected me from being the one angsting right now."

Edward set his jaw and forced himself from saying anything for a minute. "I'm sorry."

"You said that already, genius," Harry said with a careful smile. "I don't care that you bit me; it kept you from killing the headmaster, after all. A little pain is a small price to pay for you not having to carry that sort of burden around with you. Besides," Harry said as he stretched his shirt to show both sides of his neck, "now I match."

Edward examined his husband's neck. The smooth, pale skin was marred on each side by a pair of crescent-shaped scars. The pair on Harry's right side was the set that Edward had given him when he'd turned the younger boy into a vampire. The pair on the other side—which was still outlined in pale red from where the mixture of venom and blood was at work healing the wounds—was the set that Edward had just given his mate an hour before while in a starvation-induced frenzy.

"What I am angry about, dear husband, is that you opted to run away rather than talk to me."

The older vampire looked down and shuffled his feet under Harry's gaze.

"You can't do that; it isn't fair. You're privy to every thought I have. Whenever we have a problem, you have to let me in. We have to talk about it."

"You're right," Edward said softly. "It's our rule: no secrets."

"Yeah."

The bronze-haired immortal started to speak several times as he fumbled around for the right wording. "I just thought that you'd want some space. I just attacked you so I figured you would want some space to, you know, recover. Figure things out."

"It was painful, but I was far more concerned about your well-being than my own."

"And that's the point," Edward said matter-of-factly. "You were focusing on me instead of yourself. You do that so much that sooner or later it's all just going to hit you like a ton of bricks. You are so buggled up inside; you need to let it out. You need to scream and shout about how unfair this all is. You've been hunted by a tracker vampire, fought off cancer, survived a war with a vengeful she-devil and her army of newborn pains-in-the-ass, and you're being forced to fight a war that you thought you'd left behind. And now you've been viciously attacked by your own damn husband."

The older vampire shook his head for a moment. "You're handling everything _too_ well. It's not healthy, even for a vampire, to keep this much inside. I thought that it would have been best to give you a couple of hours to deal with things. I thought that me feeding off of you might have been the straw to break the camel's back. The thing that would finally force you let it out."

"I'm fine," Harry said stiffly.

Edward wasn't convinced. "No, you're not. I can hear you thinking late at night. Hoping desperately that the prophecy refers to Neville Longbottom so that you won't have to kill Voldemort and then being angry at yourself for wishing someone else into your predicament. Cursing at the unfairness of this entire situation. Fretting almost non-stop about the next time you see Sirius or anyone else from that time of your life."

"Would it make you happy if I broke a tree?" Harry asked innocently as he let his claws carve deep gouges into the bark of the tree he was leaning against.

"It would make me happy if you'd start dealing with this stuff instead of bottling it up inside."

Harry let out a frustrated sigh. "I'm trying to kill Voldemort, that's all the 'dealing' I can handle at the moment. It won't do any good to throw a temper tantrum. I used to be able to scream about the things that got me all riled up, but it's just not the same. I can't throw a fit until I'm tired out anymore; I'll just go and go and go and keep going until I have to do something else. I'm not happy with this situation. I don't want to be here, but I have to be. I don't want to kill someone, but—barring the unlikely circumstance that the prophecy _does_ refer to Neville rather than to me—I have to. I just don't see the point in complaining about things I can't change."

"It's therapeutic," Edward said as he sat down by his husband's side. "Rosalie bitches all the time and it always makes her feel better."

Harry laughed lightheartedly. "I'll be sure to talk to her about that."

"If you don't want to kick and scream, how about we just talk?"

"How exactly did this get turned around on me?" Harry asked rhetorically before leaning over to rest his head on Edward's shoulder. "Fine. It's like I said before, I can't change the way things are, so I feel like the best thing is to just try and get through it. Things will be better after I kill Voldemort."

"And then what?" Edward pressed.

"'And then what?'" Harry parroted. He didn't really understand what he was being asked.

"You destroy all of the Horcruxes, kill Voldemort, and then we're all free of the Volturi's deadline. Then what? What do you do about all of your old friends once Voldemort is gone? That's what _you've_ been angsting about since Italy."

"I honestly have no idea," Harry said with a very small shake of his head. "If Moody is anything to go by, they're not going to be too pleased about me being a vampire."

"The headmaster seems okay with it," Edward pointed out.

"Yeah, but he's okay with just about everything, it seems. He's odd like that. Odd in a good way, I mean. Sirius thinks I've ruined my life by getting married, so I bet he's pissed that I'm a vampire. Whether that's pissed as in 'pissed off' or pissed like he's drunk himself into a stupor, I have no clue. Hermione was so mad at me for leaving that she torched the letter I sent without even reading it. Ron is . . . well, Ron. He'll probably be terrified of me the next time we see each other."

"So you do plan on seeing them?"

"Well, yeah, I guess. I mean, I'm bound to see them at some point during this little quest of mine," the newborn said. "I don't know if I should actually seek them out though."

Edward placed a comforting kiss on the top of his husband's head. "It's okay to be afraid," he whispered.

"I'm not afraid of what they think," Harry said. "Okay, so maybe I am a little frightened by that. But mostly I'm concerned about causing problems. Someone who ran off, got married, and became a 'dark creature' isn't exactly who anyone would want popping up at random times. I don't think they want to see me."

"Ron and Sirius definitely do," Edward said earnestly. "And the others . . . I'm sure some of them do as well. The last time you visited, they were just so caught up in the war that they couldn't think straight about your return."

"Maybe you're right," Harry said.

"I know I'm right," Edward said with a satisfied smile. Then his eyes furrowed as he began to think about all of the turmoil he'd heard in his husband's head in recent days. "If you're not really afraid of what they think, then what is it that you're so afraid to talk about? There's something that is always there, just below the surface. Something that you're actively trying not to think about around me," the older immortal pressed.

The younger mate bit his lower lip. It was a nervous habit he'd not done much since becoming an immortal. "What I'm really afraid of is how you'll look at me after I become a murderer," Harry said in a voice so low, that, even with his advanced senses, Edward could barely hear it.

"What?" Edward asked in surprise. "Harry, you're not going to become a murderer. You're going to stop a madman's reign of terror. You might be killing him, but it's a far cry from murder. And even if you did murder someone, I would never see you as anything less than the amazing person you are."

"You say that now, but you don't know how me _murdering_ someone is going to change things between us."

"Have you looked at me any different since you found out that I've murdered people?"

"The only people you've killed were criminals, though. And it wasn't your fault. It was your instincts," Harry said before actually thinking the statement through.

"I've murdered people, love. I spent months feeding off of humans after Carlisle turned me. I used my ability to limit myself to killing criminals, but not all of them were necessarily going to kill or rape again. I deliberately chose to feed off of humans whom I decided were unworthy of living. And why? Because I thought it was less satisfying to feed off of animals. You are being forced to stop a lunatic from committing genocide. That's not murder. What I did was murder."

"So you won't think any less of me when this is all over?"

"I could never think any less of you."

Harry head shot up at Edward's poorly worded answer. He turned to look at his husband's face, leveling a glare at the older immortal.

"Uhhh . . . What I meant to say was that there was nothing you could do that would tarnish your image in my eyes."

"Way to go, Casanova," Harry said as he began to laugh.

Edward hugged his husband tightly to his chest. "Promise me you're going to start talking about these things. If not with me, then with another of the family."

"I promise," Harry said. "But you have to promise me that the next time you think I need space, you won't just run off. I've had enough of the dark and broody Edward Cullen running away from me to last a lifetime. More than a lifetime; an eternity."

"I promise," Edward said before landing a gentle kiss on his husband's lips. "So," he began, "I guess we're walking back to the hotel."

"Damn," Harry said. "You're right. I should have asked them to leave one of the cars for us rather than telling them that we'd find our own way back."

"It's a lovely evening to go on a stroll with my husband," Edward said as he stood up and reached out for Harry's hand.

The darker-haired vampire accepted his husband's hand and they began to walk back to London hand-in-hand.

"So do you think Regulus managed to destroy the Horcux?" Edward asked a few minutes into the walk.

"I sure hope so. I mean, there are so few possibilities. He died in the cave, so he didn't get out with it unless he returned to the cave for some reason and died on the return trip. And that seems highly unlikely. It clearly wasn't in the cave and the headmaster said that transportation magic doesn't work in there, so he probably couldn't have sent it away. So he either (A) destroyed it so completely that there weren't any remains or (B) had a partner who got it out for him. If it's the latter, then the next step is to find the partner."

"I hate to even bring this possibility up, but he could have been caught by the inferi as he was trying to get out of the cave and dropped the real Horcux into the sea while he was being pulled back inside," Edward suggested darkly.

"If that's the case, then we're pretty screwed."

"Then we go to our backup plan."

"We have a backup plan?" Harry asked.

"Imprison Voldmort forever by dropping him inside a volcano or something without a wand and hope that the Volturi accept that."

"A little cartoonish, but I guess something like that might work. Probably not the volcano, though. What if the Volturi don't accept it?"

Edward stared off into the distance at nothing in particular for a moment before answering. "We kill as many of them as we can."


	52. Chapter 52

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 52: Invitation**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Fifty-One – Invitation**

"Ah, Harry! Right on time," the headmaster greeted when the young vampire arrived for his second clandestine meeting with the headmaster at the Hog's Head Inn and Pub.

Although the newborn understood the importance of meeting with the headmaster, he'd found it incredibly difficult to attend the meeting. He and Edward had spent much of the previous thirty-six hours lying in one another's arms talking about everything and nothing; it was Harry's idea of heaven.

"Good evening, headmaster," Harry greeted as he and his family entered the small room on the second floor of the Hog's Head.

The old wizard turned to look at Mad-Eye Moody. The grizzled Auror was standing next to the fireplace, ready to spring into action at the slightest provocation from the vampires.

"Alastor, I was wondering if you'd step out into the hallway for a few moments so that Harry and I may talk in private."

The Auror sent an irritated glare towards Harry's companions. "And I suppose you'll be letting the bloodsuckers remain."

"Actually, I was rather hoping that they would step outside with you as well. Except for Edward, of course."

"No," Harry said firmly. "There is nothing you can say to me that I won't share with them later. There are no secrets in our family."

"Very well then, Harry. Alastor, if you please," Headmaster Dumbledore said as he motioned towards the door.

Even after the Auror had gone into the hallway, the vampires could still hear his grumbling about how the headmaster was keeping almost all of the members of the Order of the Phoenix in the dark about what it was he was searching for and where he was going. The 'bloodsuckers,' he spat venomously under his breath, were bound to turn on the old man at the first opportunity.

"I believe I should start off by conveying Sirius's thanks for returning the body of his brother, Regulus. You have helped to redeem him in Sirius's eyes. Your godfather has also asked me to convey his desire to meet with you. He feels most dreadful for what transpired between you the last time you met."

"I'll consider it," the dark-haired vampire replied evenly.

"Excellent. We may have to revisit that matter later in our conversation due to some developments of the last twenty-four hours. But before we do, I wish to tell you about my inquiries into the locket."

"Did you find anything?" Edward asked anxiously.

"I have a new lead on the real Horcrux's whereabouts. I interrogated the portraits and house elf of the Black home. The elf, Kreacher, was most especially fond of Regulus. It appears that the feelings were mutual.

"Upon Voldemort's command, Regulus sent Kreacher to test the defenses of the cave. Based on some of the more arrogant hints that Voldemort dropped, Regulus was able to deduce what was being guarded in the cave and made sure to order Kreacher to return to him once he'd done as Voldemort asked. So, although Voldemort left the elf to die in the cave at the hands of the inferi, Kreacher was compelled to use his house elf magic to bypass the wizarding magic sealing the cave and return to his master's home. Kreacher then led Regulus back to the cave where the young man obtained the Horcrux and sent it back to the Black residence with his elf."

"Would it be too much to hope for that the Horcrux was still there?" Emmett asked uncertainly.

"Sadly, yes. It appears that the locket was removed from the house some months ago by a member of the Order. The locket was uncovered during the course of cleaning the Black residence. Mundungus Fletcher, an Order member with some very useful contacts in the less savory parts of the community, stole the locket from the house. He was caught illegally selling magical artifacts in Diagon Alley and gave the locket as a bribe to the Ministry official that caught him in return for letting his offense go unpunished."

"Do you know who the Ministry employee is?" Edward asked.

"Yes. Her name is Delores Jane Umbridge. A most odious woman. Quite the Pureblood supremacist. Under orders of then-Minister Fudge, I was forced to accept her as a professor at Hogwarts for a time. More notably, however, I believe that it was she who sent the dementor to attack Harry on the night he fled from his relatives' house in Surrey," the headmaster explained.

For a brief moment, Harry felt a bit of gratitude towards the woman he had never met. She sounded awful, but she had set in motion the series of events that led to Harry and Edward meeting, falling love, and getting married. The moment of gratitude was short-lived, however. She had tried to murder him, after all.

"So this Umbridge woman has the locket?" Harry asked.

"Yes. I have intentionally had cause to speak with her in the last two days and have seen her wearing the locket about the halls of the Ministry of Magic. I have made a duplicate of it that I intend on switching with the original, but have not yet had the opportunity to actually carry my plan out," the wizard explained as he pulled the aforementioned fake locket from his robes. Unlike the small gold locket that had been at the bottom of the basin, the replica of the real horcrux was large, heavy-looking, and decorated with a series of emeralds in an 'S' pattern.

"That's great," Alice said. "You should be able to get that Horcrux pretty soon then, right?"

"Yes, I should."

"How did you recognize the locket Umbridge was wearing as the real horcrux?" Edward asked suspiciously as he looked at the replica in the wizard's hand.

"That is what I wanted to discuss with Harry next," the headmaster said. "I have a theory about what the next Horcrux is: a small, golden cup that once belonged to Helga Hufflepuff."

"How did you figure that out?" the newborn asked.

"One of the memories that I obtained about Tom's younger days dealt with his encounter with a very wealthy witch named Hepzibah Smith. She possessed two very sought after artifacts: a cup that once belonged to Helga Hufflepuff and a locket that once belonged to Salazar Slytherin. I suspected that these objects were used as Horcruxes, but I wasn't sure. I wasn't even sure that Tom had stolen the objects. I knew that he coveted them and that Hepzibah Smith died under mysterious circumstances—supposedly poisoned by her house elf—but nothing more. The locket that I saw around Delores Umbridge's neck, however, was most definitely the locket of Salazar Slytherin."

"And given how you traced the locket to Umbridge and the way that both it and the cup were coveted by Voldemort, it stands to reason that Voldemort likely used the cup as a Horcrux as well," Edward concluded.

"Precisely. And the ring Horcrus was a family heirloom of the Gaunt family. They were the line from which Tom Riddle's mother was descended and, to my knowledge, the last direct line of Slytherin. I believe that Voldemort, who has always placed great weight on the purity of one's blood despite his own status as a Halfblood, is using items related to great and powerful Pureblood wizards and witches to cement his immortality."

"So when looking for future Horcruxes, those sort of items are prime candidates," Carlisle said.

"A cup and a locket . . ." Harry muttered quietly.

"I beg your pardon?" the headmaster asked.

"Sorry, it's nothing."

"Please, Harry, if you have something to add, do not hesitate."

"It's just that there's something oddly familiar about Hufflepuff's cup and Slytherin's locket. I know I've heard about them somewhere before, but I just can't put my finger on it," the vampire explained. He mentally cursed the way all of the memories of his life as a human were so clouded.

"The objects are referenced in many books as some of the only artifacts of the four founders of Hogwarts that are known to actually still exist. Other relics, such as the Sword of Gryffindor, were usually considered lost to history because they have been hidden out of the public's sight. Many other supposed relics that are featured in some of the more fantastic tales of the the four founders likely never existed in the first place. The cup and the locket, however, have always been owned by a prominent witch or wizard who often flaunted them to promote their own status. Right up until Hepzibah Smith's murder, that is. Perhaps you saw some reference to them while researching one of the various mysterious you tackled as a student."

"Maybe. I just feel like there's some clue staring me in the face and I'm missing it," Harry said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure that it will come to you," the headmaster said. "And that brings us to the third topic of the evening. I am afraid, however, that I may not be the best person to discuss it."

"Then who is?" Harry asked.

"Severus Snape."

"Oh joy," Rosalie muttered softly.

Rosalie's lack of enthusiasm paled in comparison to Harry's thoughts about the man. Snape had always been a touchy subject with Harry, but things had gotten worse in recent days, and only in part because the man had openly advocated erasing Harry's memories. There was also the issue of the prophecy. Harry knew that someone had eavesdropped on the prophecy and told part of it to Voldemort. It was because of the eavesdropper's actions that Voldemort went after Harry as a child. The young vampire knew that Snape had been in Voldemort's service and that Dumbledore, for some insane reason, trusted him. It made perfect sense to Harry that Snape would be the one to have caused his parents' deaths. He couldn't prove it yet, but he intended to find out the truth before everything was said and done.

"A matter has arisen that Professor Snape needs to discuss with the entire Order of the Phoenix. He has discussed the matter with me, and I'm afraid I have been unable to satisfactorily remedy the situation. I would, therefore, ask that you consider attending a meeting of the Order to hear about the situation and provide your input," Dumbledore said.

Harry chewed on the inside of his cheek while Jasper asked, "When is the meeting?"

"As soon as I return to Sirius Black's home," the wizard answered. "I understand completely if you do not wish to attend; I apologize for springing this upon you in this fashion. If I had been able to give you more forewarning, I would have. But the matter arose late last night."

"So this is what you meant earlier about 'revisiting' the topic of Harry seeing his godfather?" Esme asked.

"Yes, it was," the headmaster replied. "Again, I entirely understand if you do not wish to attend this evening's meeting. If you decline, then I will relate to you what I know of the situation now, bid you good evening, and then update you when next we meet."

"I'll go," Harry said after his moment of indecision passed. "There's no reason why I can't."

"Excellent," the headmaster said in a surprisingly subdued tone. "Then I believe the next step is to tell you all the Secret."

"There's a secret involved?" Emmett asked.

"The Secret about the location of the Order of the Phoenix's headquarters. Sirius Black's home was chosen as the headquarters for the Order because it already had virtually all of the protections imaginable on it. I added the Fidelius Charm, which was one of the few protections not already in place," the head of Hogwarts explained.

"Harry has told us about that charm, professor," Carlisle interrupted before the wizard could begin detailing the charm to the vampires.

"I suspected as much," Albus Dumbledore said with a nod of his head. "I am the Secret-Keeper and so am the only one who can tell you where the residence is located. Once I have told you where the house is located, we will portkey a short distance away from the home."

"Why not just porkey directly into the house?" Edward asked.

"The Minister of Magic is very interested in where I go when I leave school grounds. He has been monitoring all portkeys, authorized or otherwise, that leave Hogsmeade. That is why we apparated to the cave the other night. Portkeying to a harmless street in a Muggle city is far less suspicious than transporting to a location that the Ministry cannot find.

"Now, if there are no more questions. The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London."

After a moment of silence passed between the assembled group, Emmett asked, "That's it?"

"Whatever do you mean, my dear boy?"

"I figured that there'd be more to it. You know, flashy lights and stuff."

The headmaster chuckled as Rosalie smacked her husband on the back of the head. "I am afraid there is nothing flashy about revealing the Secret."

"No one ever does any of the cool magic in front of me," Emmett groused.

"Would one of you please fetch Alastor?" the wizard requested.

As requested, Emse—who was standing nearest the door—invited the wizard back into the room. Moody hadn't stopped grumbling the entire time he was out in the hall and didn't stop grumbling as he made his way to stand next to the headmaster.

"Alastor," Dumbledore began, "Harry and his new family will be accompanying us to the meeting this evening." The Auror was about to protest, but the headmaster didn't give him the chance. "We will be portkeying to the Black residence in just a moment."

The headmaster walked over to the fireplace and removed a very tarnished candlestick from the mantle. He placed the object on the floor before touching it with his wand and incanting "_Portus_." The silver-haired wizard motioned for the Cullen family to encircle the object. "Now, everyone touch the portkey on three. One. Two. Three!"


	53. Chapter 53

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 53: Grimmauld Place**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Fifty-Two – Grimmauld Place**

Harry wasn't fond of portkeys. He'd only experienced them a few times before: the trip to and from the Quidditfch World Cup and the trip to and from the graveyard where Lord Voldemort regained his body. Portkey equates to Death Eaters in his mind. And Cedric Diggory.

Much like apparating, traveling by portkey isn't very comfortable. While apparition feels like being forced through a rubber hose, portkeying feels like being tossed about by a towline attached to the back of one's navel. For all that wizards and witches could do, they seemed somehow incapable of creating a comfortable means of instantaneous transport.

The eight vampires and two wizards were deposited on a darkened street corner. Harry was relieved that he managed to stay upright; he chalked that minor miracle up to his enhanced reflexes. No one toppled over when they landed, but Alice let out a giggle and asked if they could go again.

Alastor Moody began to inspect the street as soon as the group arrived. His artificial eye was spinning wildly in its socket as he checked for any signs of danger. It irked Harry that the Auror wouldn't simply ask to vampires if they could hear or see anything.

Although the corner was dark due to a broken street lamp—very convenient and likely caused by the Order to provide a discrete place to transport in and out of—the rest of the little lane was well-lit. The aged headmaster reached into his pocket and brought out a silver instrument about the size of a large pocketknife. He raised the device high above his head and flipped open the little device's cap. Once opened, he began to aim it towards the lights down the street. One by one, the street lights flared before the illumination was literally sucked into the device, leaving only an extinguished street lamp behind.

Once the street was totally dark, the headmaster put the silver device back into the pocket of his robes before motioning the assembled group to follow him.

With his vampiric eyes, Harry was able to make out the house numbers of all of the residences. Number 12 was noticeable absent. At least, it was until the group got within a dozen meters of it. Then, the terrace house magically popped up between numbers 11 and 13. The surrounding houses seemed to be pushed aside to make room for the group's destination while, at the same time, appeared not to move in the slightest. It was a bit disorienting to watch.

There was no handle on the front door of Number 12. Instead, the headmaster simply raised his wand and gently ran its tip down the front of the door. As the wand traveled on its downward path, the vampires could all hear a number of locks releasing. Once unlocked, the door swung open of its own accord.

The interior of the house was dark and solemn. The dingy carpet was threadbare and the chandelier and gas lamps cast uneven light into the room that the door opened into. The entryway was small and could barely hold the ten new occupants. Aside from a large, ugly umbrella stand that was pushed into a corner by the front door, the only thing in the entryway was a portrait obscured from view by a set of moth-eaten black curtains. Harry knew that it was a portrait behind the curtains because he could hear its occupant softly snoring. Directly opposite of the front door was a narrow staircase leading downstairs. A second staircase, this one leading up to the upper floors of 12 Grimmauld Place, was positioned to the left of the door. Off to the right was an opening into what appeared to be the only other room on the ground floor, though Harry couldn't discern what the room was from where he was standing.

"Headmaster?" the distinctive matronly voice of Molly Weasley called from the narrow staircase opposite of the door. The woman's head of thinning red hair soon popped up into sight. "Is that you? Oh, Harry! You came!" the woman cried cheerfully when she caught sight of the group of cloaked figures next to the headmaster. Although she couldn't tell who the cloaked figures were, she knew that there was a chance that Harry and his new family would be attending the meeting and so quickly deduced who the newcomers were.

When the youngest vampire's named was called, the sounds of movement erupted from all corners of the house. Several witches and wizards were soon galloping down the stairs while others began taking up positions in the little opening from the other room on the ground floor.

The commotion awoke the portrait hidden behind the black curtains. A female voice began screaming vile obscenities. "Filth! Mudbloods sullying this ancient and noble house! Death will come to you all! Vermin! Traitors!"

Sirius Black pushed his way through the throng of people standing at the entryway to the vampires' right. He rushed to the black curtains and began hushing the portrait. After several attempts, he managed to get the painting's occupant be silent once more. The dark-haired wizard then turned and looked at the eight cloaked figures expectantly.

Realizing that neither Sirius nor any of the other Order members could tell which of the cloaked vampires was him, Harry made his way to the front of the group and pulled back his hood. It was the first time any witch or wizard aside from Albus Dumbledore and Alastor Moody had seen Harry post-transformation. Several of them were unable to restrain their gasps of surprise as they took in his pale, angular features and dark eyes. While he still looked similar to Harry Potter, his appearance was distinctly different. Distinctly not human.

The newborn took a moment to examine the reactions of the onlookers. Ron and Hermione were shocked, but, to his great relief, neither appeared upset. The same couldn't be said for Ginny Weasley and Kingsley Shacklebolt; they both looked _very_ upset. Minerva McGongall and the rest of the Weasleys—Arthur, Molly, and Charlie—looked at Harry in surprise and awe. Sirius and Remus looked hopeful at Harry's presence, but seemed unphased by his transformation.

"Hello," the newborn greeted the mostly slack-jawed occupants of Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

Everyone was speechless for a moment. "So, you deigned to join us, did you Potter?" a snide voice came from the room off to Harry's right to cut through the silence. The vampire could recognize the voice of Severus Snape anywhere.

"Well, there wasn't anything good on television tonight, so we didn't exactly have anything better to do," Emmett said from behind Harry. Most of the wizards and witches didn't get the joke, but Hermione Granger cracked a smile.

"Perhaps we should move this into the dining room," the headmaster suggested.

"Sure," Sirius said enthusiastically as he moved forward to clap Harry on the shoulder.

The dining room was far larger than Harry had expected it to be. The room was fairly narrow, but it was very long. The newborn vampire and his family gathered at one end of the enormous table that dominated the room. Sirius, who was initially headed towards the far head of the table, promptly switched course and positioned himself very near the vampires. If he wanted to sit any closer, he'd have to actually sit in Harry's lap. And Harry believed the Edward would have a thing or two to say about such an event.

There were a total of 21 individuals filling up the dining room up to the brim. The immortals occupied one end of the room while the wizards and witched dominated the other. The entire thing reminded Harry of a negotiation or a treaty signing with the way the two groups remained segregated from one another.

The vampires were positioned at one end of the room with Carlisle and Esme sitting at the foot of the table. Alice and Jasper sat to their left, Edward and Harry sat to their right, and Emmett and Rosalie were standing at their back.

Albus Dumbledore sat opposite Carlisle and Esme in the seat that Sirius was originally heading towards at the head of the table. Snape and Moody were standing behind the headmaster in opposite corners of the room, each sending the other hateful glances. Minerva McGonagall was acting as a buffer between them.

The space between Harry and the headmaster was filled with Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and the pink-haired witch that Harry had met at the Burrow some weeks before. The tall black wizard that had accompanied Dumbledore to the Weasley house several nights before, Kingsley Shacklebolt, was standing behind Lupin with his arms crossed. Molly, Arthur, and Ginny Weasley all sat opposite of Sirius and his companions with Hermione, Ron, and Charlie standing behind them in the little opening that led back to the entryway. Ron and Hermione were sending Harry hopeful looks. Charlie, by comparison, was looking almost sympathetically at Harry, as though he felt sorry for him.

"It's good to see you," Sirius said quietly to Harry as the rest of the Order members filed into the room.

"You too," the dark-haired vampire said with a smile. His response, in return, prompted Sirius's face to split into a broad grin.

"I want to apologize for the things I said the last time we saw each other."

"The headmaster told me. I forgive you. And I understand why you acted the way you did, even if I don't like it. I freaked you out a bit with the whole sudden appearance and the marriage thing," Harry said with a slight shrug and a laugh.

"Yeah," Sirius said. He laughed as well, but his laugh was louder and deeper than his godson's. "And, I want to thank you bringing Reggie's body back. He . . . I always thought the worst of him. Dumbledore can't give me details, but he said that my brother died fighting for our side . . . and I just . . . well, thanks."

"You're welcome," Harry said as his smile grew broader. This sort of meaningful and heartfelt exchange, he thought, was the way his first reunion with Sirius should have gone.

"I believe that we should begin with introductions," Professor Dumbledore interrupted.

One by one, the vampires all pulled back the hoods on their cloaks. Edward looked at Harry and gave him a reassuring smile to urge him to begin.

"Um, well, you all know me by now. This is Edward, my husband," he said as he took the bronze-haired vampire's hand under the table. "My parents-in-law, Carlisle and Esme are at the end with Emmett and Rosalie behind them. The girl with the goofy grin is Alice and next to her is her husband, Jasper."

Most of the vampires simply nodded their heads when they were introduced, but Alice, of course, had to be different. "I like your hair," she said enthusiastically to the pink-haired witch.

"Nice to meet you all," Sirius said warmly to the vampires once the introductions were finished, much to the very visible disapproval of Mad-Eye Moody. "I'm Sirius, and this old cad on my right is Remus. The girl who looks like she's got Bubblegum in her hair is Nymph-"

"Tonks!" the girl shouted. "Just Tonks!"

Sirius laughed at the witch's outburst before going through and introducing the rest of the people in the room. When he was finished, the headmaster took back over.

"Now then, we have a very important matter to discuss this evening. As you may have noticed, I have purposefully excluded certain members of the Order this evening because of my desire to keep this matter very quiet. We will not be discussing these matters with anyone not currently present."

"If I may ask, Headmaster: why are the vampires being included?" Kingsley asked. His face had softened considerably since first seeing Harry, but his voice still carried a bit of an edge to it.

"I feel that it is very important to include Harry and his new family in this discussion. They are working with me on a very important project and have my complete and implicit trust. They, like the rest of you, are here for this meeting because I believe that it is one of you who may come up with an answer to our dilemma," the old wizard replied. "Now, Severus, if you will."

The potions professor glowered at the back of his superior's head before turning his attention to the room. "As most of you already know, Lucius Malfoy was ordered to kill the headmaster last spring. After several clumsy and failed attempts, he finally tried a frontal assault during the last Hogsmeade visit of the year. Not only did he fail in the task, but he died when the Aurors attempted to take him into custody. We have theorized for some time that Lucius was assigned this task as punishment for a previous failure, though we don't know what that failure was exactly."

Harry met the clear blue eyes of his former headmaster and understood instantly: Lucius Malfoy was being punished for the destruction of the diary Horcrux in Harry's second year.

"This theory now seems very probable because Draco Malfoy has been ordered to finish what his father began," Professor Snape continued.

"You're serious?" Arthur Weasley asked incredulously. "From what I understand, the boy is talented for his age, but he is no match for a fully trained wizard. Much less Dumbledore."

"And that's likely the point," Auror Shacklebolt said from his place by the wall. "It's suicide, but much worse. The boy has to know he can't succeed. He knows that he'll either die in the attempt or die at You-Know-Who's hand and he's got months to worry about it. He's not just going to die, he's going to suffer beforehand."

"There is more," Professor Dumbledore said gravely.

"Narcissa Malfoy and her sister, Bellatrix, visited me early last night. I had no choice but to make an Unbreakable Vow to ensure Draco succeeded."

Harry's mind drifted for a moment. He remembered seeing Narcissa Malfoy at the Quidditch World Cup. She was a tall, thin woman with aristocratic features, blonde hair, and an expression fixed to her face that made it look like she'd smelled something dreadful all her life. The vampire could visualize her grasping Snape's forearms as the magic of the Unbreakable Vow bound the two together.

"'No choice'?" Moody asked in a suspicious and gruff voice. "How is it that you had 'no choice' in the matter? You could have just said 'no'."

"He had no choice because I gave him none," the headmaster said in a quiet yet firm voice. "I instructed him to do everything he could to keep his position in Voldemort's ranks. Either he could have exposed himself by refusing the Vow or he could have made the Vow as Narcissa insisted. We can theorize about how this situation could have been avoided, but it would do us no good. What we must do at this point is to figure out how we proceed now that the Vow has been made."

Everyone began to exchange glances and quietly discuss the matter. No one had any great ideas. Most of the whispers were, in fact, disparaging comments about the potions professor.

"What exactly did you promise, Snape?" Sirius practically spat after a few moments.

The potions professor wrinkled his hooked nose in disgust at the animagus before replying. "I promised to help Draco achieve his task and, if he is unable to complete it, do the deed myself."

"Great. Just bloody great," Ron muttered.

"What happens if Professor Snape doesn't go through with it?" Jasper asked.

"The Unbreakable Vow will hold Professor Snape to his promise," Remus said in his slow and cool way. "He will keep his end of the promise, or he'll die."

"Is it really unbreakable?" Emmett asked.

Utter silence met the vampire's question. Then there was some snickering and quiet joking about the question from the wizards.

"What?" the curly-haired vampire demanded. "It's a legitimate question. Just because it's called an 'Unbreakable Vow' doesn't mean it's actually unbreakable. Sometime it's just hype."

"There is a way around the Vow, but it isn't one we will utilize," Professor Dumbledore said hesitantly from his place at the head of the table.

"What is it?" Harry demanded. When it looked like the headmaster was going to refuse to tell him, the newborn pressed the issue. "You used the Unbreakable Vow to protect my family. If there's a chance that it won't hold, then I need to know."

The old wizard opened his mouth and wet his lips before saying anything more. "That is fair enough. An Unbreakable Vow is a very durable spell, but like all magic, it has its limitations. The power behind the spell is three-fold. The Bonder's magic, the magic of the one who makes the Vow, and the magic of the one to whom the Vow is made.

"Under most spells, like the Imperious Curse, the magic begins to fade when the spellcaster dies. Because of the three spellcasters whose magic is pulled into the Vow, it is extremely durable."

"So . . ." Carlisle began hesitantly, "the spell will weaken as its participants die, but not enough for the spell to fade away."

"Yes," the headmaster confirmed. "The magic of any one of the three participants can hold the Vow tight, so the Vow can only be broken by all three parties renouncing the Vow or dying. Or some combination thereof. I ensured the safety of the Vow protecting your secret by shifting Bonders, the one who makes the Vow, and the one to whom the Vow is made amongst the members of the Order. Because the Vow requires all of those who made it to protect the secret and because there are many who are part of the chain whom will never consent to the Vow being broken, there is virtually no chance of your secret being revealed without the Order destroying itself in the attempt."

Harry and his vampire family thought the headmaster's explanation through. He was right; there was little chance of the Vows being totally broken because of how interconnected the different Vows were. There was still a chance, but it had been minimized as much as possible at this point.

"So what's the big deal?" Charlie asked. "The Bonder is a Death Eater and the Vow is held by a woman who is either a Death Eater or an unmarked supporter. Kill Bellatrix and then either kill Narcissa or force her to renounce the Vow."


	54. Chapter 54

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 54: The Value of Chocolate Frogs**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Fifty-Three – The Value of Chocolate Frogs**

Charlie's suggestion was met with almost a full minute of silence. Harry looked to his husband to see if he could read the other vampire's reaction, but Edward was stone-faced. The other vampires were equally stoic. The wizards, however, showed a myriad of emotions across their faces. Some, like Molly Weasley, were aghast. Others, like Alastor Moody, looked like they were giving the idea some serious consideration.

"No," the headmaster said in his usual quiet manner. "We will not hunt down and murder Bellatrix Lestrange."

"Why not?" Moody demanded. "She'd do the same to any of us."

"Of that I am very much aware, Alastor. But we cannot sink to that level. It is one thing to kill an opponent in open combat when there is no other choice and another matter entirely to seek that opponent out with the express intent of killing her. We cannot sacrifice our convictions in this war. If we do, then we are no better than out enemy."

But it is evidently okay to hunt down and destroy the things that tie Lord Voldemort to this world with the intent of ensuring the creature's demise, Harry thought bitterly.

"But how is this situation any different than if you were dueling with her?" Jasper asked. "Your life has been put in mortal peril. If she will not renounce her hold on the Vow, then it seems you must pick between her life and your own."

"He makes a good point," Kingsley said. The edge he had had in his voice earlier had faded away entirely.

"I will not consent to killing her in this manner to save myself," the head of Hogwarts said with a weary shake of his head.

"Even if the headmaster was willing to consent to killing Lestrange, that would still leave Narcissa Malfoy to contend with," Arthur Weasley interjected. "She'll never renounce the Vow. She's doing this for her son. And despite the circumstances, I don't think I could have any hand in killing a woman who's just trying to save her boy. She'll hold on to the Vow until the very end because it gives her son the best chance of survival; Narcissa will never trust us to keep the boy safe."

Reluctantly, Harry had to agree with Mr. Weasley. Narcissa was acting in defense of her only child and would never release Professor Snape from his promise unless she could be absolutely certain of Draco's safety. Unless the Order could provide that . . .

Edward squeezed Harry's hand tightly under the table. The older vampire must have heard the worried thoughts within Harry's mind.

"I don't think there is any way out of this mess without someone dying. To break the Vow, Bellatrix and perhaps Narcissa will have to die and Draco will become a target for their master. If the Vow is not broken but goes unfulfilled, then Severus dies and Draco still becomes a target. If the Vow is fulfilled, then the headmaster dies," Remus Lupin recounted tiredly. "Unless anyone has any bright ideas."

"Is there a way we can fulfill the Vow without the headmaster staying dead? Muggles resuscitate people after they die all the time, don't they?" Tonks asked the assembled group.

"It is possible," Carlisle Cullen replied as he thought the suggestion over. "But it doesn't save Draco Malfoy from Voldemort." The way the vampire casually used the Dark Lord's assumed name surprised the wizards and witches in attendance as the majority of them flinched.

"I don't get how that would work," Ron said as he squinted his eyes in confusion.

"They're suggesting that Professor Snape use something so that the headmaster's heart stops beating temporarily and then give him something to bring him back," his girlfriend, Hermione Granger, explained.

"Theoretically, it could fulfill Snape's Vow without actually killing the headmaster," Remus said. "The headmaster would die, but he wouldn't remain dead. Because Severus's Vow ensures that he must help Draco Malfoy to kill the headmaster and says nothing about the headmaster remaining dead, it should work."

Harry and Albus Dumbledore were looking at each other with worried expressions. They were both thinking the same thing: it takes more than stopping the heart for someone to actually die. If the prophecy was anything to go by, then Harry was still alive even though his heart was no longer beating beating because, but its terms, he could only die by Voldemort's hands. Either the prophecy didn't refer to him—and they were both reasonably certain that it did—or death requires something more than stopping the heart. But there was no way to reveal this knowledge to the other wizards and witches present without revealing at least part of the prophecy.

"Is there a time limit being imposed on us?" Harry asked in order to change the subject. "Nothing in the Vow indicates a time limit, but Professor Snape did promise to make sure Malfoy succeeded. So I guess my question is: did Voldemort give Draco a deadline before which he must kill Professor Dumbledore?"

All eyes turned to Professor Snape. The wizard arched an eyebrow in obvious surprise at the question. "Graduation," he said emotionlessly. "Draco has been given until the end of his Hogwarts career to kill the headmaster."

But the newborn vampire knew that he was under a much faster deadline. He only had until the new year to kill Voldemort.

Edward asked the next question as soon as Harry formed it in his mind. "What if Voldemort dies before then? If Voldemort dies, then doesn't Malfoy's mission end by extension? If there's no more mission, then there isn't really anything for Professor Snape to help Malfoy succeed in, right?"

Several of the wizards exchanged thoughtful glances before Professor McGonagall responded. "Honestly, I don't know that anyone knows the answer to that. Unbreakable Vows are rarely used. This is all really just speculation and conjecture. The only way to know if any of this will work is to try it."

"Which means that we don't know what will happen," Rosalie said in a frustrated tone. "If Voldemort dies, then the brat won't have any reason to kill the headmaster. But the Vow may still bind Snape because he promised to help Malfoy succeed without stipulation. Hells bells, Dumbledore could keel over because of natural causes and then Snape could still die because neither he nor Malfoy would have been the one to kill him and Malfoy would, therefore, fail in his mission."

Several of the mortals in the room looked incredibly frustrated. Sirius ran a hand over his face, Kingsley leaned heavily against the wall to his back, and Tonks put her face in her hands let out a frustrated growl.

"This is giving me a headache," Ron said as be flopped his head back against the door frame.

"I honestly hadn't expected us to come to a solution this evening," Albus Dumbledore stated. "I have brought the matter before you all so that you might ruminate on it. Think throughout the next several days and nights and see if you can find a solution. Either we find a way around the Vow or Severus will be forced to kill me. Draco Malfoy is still young and innocent; I will not have my murder on his soul." The headmaster rose from his seat and then looked at Professor Snape. "Severus, I will speak to you in the drawing room. The rest of you, I shall bid you good evening."

The meeting broke up at that point. The headmaster and the potions professor left the room and went upstairs. Kingsley and Tonks said their goodbyes to everyone, telling Molly Weasley that they couldn't stay for dinner because of work at the Ministry. The Weasley matriarch excused herself to go downstairs to put the finishing touches on dinner.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all shot Harry hopeful looks before backing out of the room. It was clear that they wanted him to follow.

"Hey Sirius," the vampire said softly, "do you mind if I catch up with you in a bit?"

Sirius looked momentarily disappointed, but nodded his head up and down after he followed Harry's gaze to his former housemates. "Sure thing. It will give me an opportunity to have a chat with your husband."

Harry snickered and Emmett burst out laughing at the idea of the animagus giving Edward a stern talking to about how the vampire should treat his godson. The young vampire leaned over, gave his husband a kiss and a quick 'good luck,' and then left the room in pursuit of his old friends. Charlie Weasley started to say something as Harry passed by, but stopped before he could get anything out.

Finding Ron, Hermione, and Ginny wasn't very difficult; Harry just had to follow their scents. It was weird that they didn't wait, but perhaps they knew the vampire could track them through the house easily enough. They only had two places they could go: upstairs or downstairs. And because Molly Weasley had gone downstairs to finish dinner, that only left up.

Slowly making his way up the stairs, Harry couldn't help but let his eyes wander up to the shrunken heads of house elves that were mounted on the wall. There were three doors off of the first landing and Harry could smell the headmaster's trail and a powerful chemical scent leading to one of the doors. The scent of Harry's three old friends continued upwards.

The two redheads and the bushy-haired brunette were all waiting on the second landing for the vampire.

"Hello," Harry greeted them.

"Uh, hiya, mate," Ron said a bit awkwardly. "Let's go in my room so that we can talk."

The redhead led Harry through one of the three doors on the second floor. Beyond was a bedroom with a pair of twin beds and several posters for the Chudley Cannons. Ron immediately walked over to one of the beds and flopped himself down. Hermione and Ginny sat quietly on the other bed in the room.

"When you said that this is your room, what exactly did you mean?" the vampire questioned. "School is in session and you live at the Burrow during the summers, right?"

"Yeah," Ron said. "But we stayed here after fourth year and some weekends since then. This is the room that Sirius fixed up for us."

"Us?"

"You and me," Ron said sullenly.

"Oh."

There was an awkward silence between the four before Ginny asked her first question. "Is that vampire really your husband?" she asked in an almost demanding way.

"Yes. Edward and I were married during the summer," Harry answered.

The vampire could see Ginny's lips tighten as she tried very hard to not frown. Instead, she just looked like she was sucking on a particularly sour piece of candy.

"It figures that I'd run away and end up in a town populated by vampires and shapeshifters," Harry tried to joke.

Ron laughed at Harry's statement. What Hermione said in response, however, was the real shocker.

"I'm glad," she said in a trembling voice. "I'm glad that you found someone who makes you happy. That you found love."

The emotion in her voice was so powerful that Harry briefly thought that it would cause is own eyes to water. But, of course, vampires couldn't cry.

"Thanks, Hermione. That means a lot. And he does make me happy. Happier than I ever thought possible."

"I didn't even know you were, you know," Ron said awkwardly.

Both Harry and Hermione just stared at the Weasley boy for a few seconds before they began to laugh at his statement. Ron joined in after a moment. Ginny watched the three laughing teenagers in horror before storming out of the room.

"Don't mind her, she's just having hard time letting go of her crush," Ron explained as he watched his sister flee.

"She's not the only one," Hermione muttered.

Harry wanted to ask the girl what she meant, but he decided to just let it drop. There were far more important things to talk about at the moment. "I would say that I'm sorry for running, but I'm not. I met Edward and my new family because I ran, so even if I did say it, it would be a lie. I'm sorry I hurt you both, but I can't do anything more than that."

"We know," Hermione said. "I have to apologize to you Harry. For being so awful and throwing your letter away. I was so angry at you back then that I . . . I just . . ." she trailed off.

"I know. And I'm not mad; I deserved it," Harry assured his old friend.

"But the others didn't. It was simply terrible of me to make them worry like that." The witch turned her head away from Harry so that the immortal wouldn't see the tears start to fall, but the vampire could hear them splatter on her hands anyway. "We've been talking about everything that's happened a great deal lately." She tried to continue, but could only hiccup, so her boyfriend took over.

"We were both angry at you. First because you left and then because you wouldn't stay when you did come back. But we eventually started to ask ourselves what we would have done if it was us. If V-Voldemort was hunting us and we were expelled from school and told that the Aurors were going to destroy our wands, we would have ran too. And if it was because we left that we found each other, we wouldn't want to come back either," Ron said miserably. "We understand it better now that we've had time to think. We don't like that we've been replaced-"

"You haven't," Harry protested. "I've found new friends and family, but they don't replace you. People never replace other people. It's just . . . different."

"You saying that you don't have a new best mate?" Ron challenged softly.

Harry thought about all of the people in his life before answering. He thought about lazy afternoons spent with Emmett playing video games, dancing about the house with Alice, and the way he would stay up late eating junk food with Leah and Jake. "Edward's my soul mate and best friend. And I have other close friends as well. But you two. You are the first friends I ever made. You stood by me when we were protecting the Stone and when everyone thought I was the heir of Slytherin. And you believed me when I said that Voldemort was back. Nothing is ever going to change how important the two of you are to me. You're a part me and my life that will never fade away."

"Can I ask you another question?" Ron asked after a few seconds of pondering Harry's words.

"You just did," Hermione pointed out to her boyfriend's irritation.

"Ask anything you want," the vampire offered.

"Do you really eat blood?"

Hermione looked incredulous at the question, but Harry just laughed. It felt really good to laugh with them again. "Yes, I do. But not human blood. I still have some of my own blood in my system, which is why my eyes are still a little red, but my family and I all feed exclusively on animals. That's why our eyes are predominantly amber."

"But your husband's eyes have some red in them," Ron pointed with narrowed eyes.

"Just a little of my blood from when he turned me," Harry said smoothly. It was true, at least in part. Edward had ingested a bit of his husband's blood when he turned him, but not much. Most of the red color came from their encounter in the cave.

"So I can't interest you in a chocolate frog?" the redhead said as he walked over to the dresser and pulled one of the candies out of the top drawer.

"You'll ruin you dinner," Hermione pointed out disapprovingly.

Harry wrinkled his nose at the idea of eating chocolate. "I'm more partial to bear. Edward thinks it's because of all the time I spend with Emmett."

"Bear?" Ron asked in surprise. "I figured you ate smaller animals."

"Nope. I like bears. Edward is more partial to mountain lions. Now that's appetizing. Chocolate sounds about as good to me as a bear does to you."

"Except I bet the thought of eating a chocolate frog doesn't give you mental images of being mauled to death," Hermione joked.

The vampire watched a Ron popped the piece of chocolate into his mouth. As the human was eating the candy, he checked out the card that came in the package. "Damn," he said with his mouth still full of chocolate. "Dumbledore again."

That nagging feeling that Harry had had earlier was back in force. There was some clue staring him in the face and he was missing it. Then, as he watched Ron flick the little paper card away, a thought occurred to him. "Hey Ron, do you have any other chocolate frog cards here?" he asked.

"Sure," the Weasley boy said absently as he riffled through the drawer he pulled the candy out of. "I've got most of them at school, but some of my extras are here." He tossed several dozen cards down on his bed before searching for more.

Hermione watch in fascination as Harry began to sort through the cards at an inhuman speed. There were several cards of Albus Dumbledore and few of Morgan La Fay—a beautiful, dark-haired witch with grey streaks lining her face and fur-lined robes—but eventually, Harry found the four cards he was looking for: the cards of the four founders of Hogwarts.

The first card was of Salazar Slytherin. A tall, pale wizard, he looked very austere; not at all the sort of person that one would peg as the founder of a school. He was bald, but had a long white beard. His bony fingers were steepled. The most important feature of the card was what was around the wizards neck: a golden locket set with emeralds in the shape of stylized 'S'.

The second card was of Helga Hufflepuff. She was a plump witch with red hair, dark robes, and a gold-colored cape. She was holding the golden cup that the headmaster had described to Harry and indicated was likely the next Horcrux.

The third card was of Godric Gryffindor. This wizard looked like a warrior. With flaming red hair and beard and a strong face, he looked like he was ready to jump from the card and engage any who would threaten his school in combat. Harry's eyes roamed over the card looking for any potential Horcruxes. Sure, the wizard wore red gauntlets and other pieces of armor, but there wasn't anything that seemed like a likely candidate except for the jeweled sword in his hands.

The fourth and final card was of Rowena Ravenclaw. Dressed in varying shades of blue and purple, she was just as pale as Slytherin, but her features were far softer. Her dark hair was pulled away from her face and she was brandishing her wand. She, sadly, was adorned in several items that could have been used as horcruxes: a blue ring on her left hand, silver bracelets on both wrists, a blue beaded necklace, and a crown-like headdress.

Despite the uncertainty as to which items in the images could have been Horcruxes, Harry smiled as he looked at the cards in his hands. He was certain he'd just found an important clue in finding another horcrux or two.

**A/N:** For those that are curious, the descriptions of Gryffidor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin are based on their 'Wizard of the Month' pictures put out by Rowling. Ravenclaw's description is an amalgamation of her images used for her chocolate frog card and her 'Wizard of the Month' profile. Morgan La Fay's description is also from her card.


	55. Chapter 55

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 55: A Day Off**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash. This chapter references child abuse.

**Chapter Fifty-Four – A Day Off**

Harry's revelation about the chocolate frog cards was excitedly received by the headmaster. The old wizard thought that the cards could very well hold the key to discovering what the next Horcrux was.

The Sword of Gryffindor had been all but ruled out as a possibility. Headmaster Dumbledore assured Harry that the Sword had been hidden away since before Tom M. Riddle was even born. It had been lost sometime after the death of Godric Gryffindor and was not recovered until Harry pulled it from the Sorting Hat in his second year at Hogwarts. Although there was a slim possibility that the sword could have been recovered by Voldemort sometime before Harry pulled it out of the Sorting Hat, it was very unlikely.

If Voldemort had found it and turned it into a Horcrux, he would have undoubtedly taken some steps to protect it. Steps which would have either ensured the Sorting Hat couldn't have summoned it from its resting place or that would have harmed anyone attempting to use it. Even if the Sword of Gryffindor had been a Horcrux, the infusion of basilisk venom should have destroyed the bit of Voldemort's soul encased within it. Just to be on the safe side, however, the headmaster had agreed to examine the sword thoroughly.

Rowena Ravenclaw's card was the more difficult issue. There were several items in her picture that could have served as Horcruxes. The headmaster was fairly certain that Ravenclaw's diadem, said to be a mystical item, was the trophy that Voldemort would have picked to house a fragment of his soul in, but he had no proof. After obtaining the real locket and finding where Voldemort had hidden the cup, researching the diadem would be the next priority.

Even with his reconciliations with his old friends and his godfather, everything seemed so very complex to Harry. He only had until the end of the year to end Voldemort's life and the key to doing that was making sure that all of his Horcruxes were destroyed. The dark wizard had created seven of them—six made intentionally and one unintentionally.

The bit of Voldemort's soul that had been accidentally placed within Harry had been burned away by vampire venom. The ring and diary Horcruxes had been destroyed and Harry and his allies at least knew where the locket Horcrux was. That left three Horcruxes unaccounted for: Hufflepuff's cup was believed to be a Horcrux, but they had no idea where it was; the headmaster suspected Ravenclaw's diadem to be a Horcrux, but they were neither positive about that nor knew where it would be; and then there was a final Horcrux they didn't even know where to start with.

But those concerns felt like they were a million miles away at the moment. The Cullen family had spent so much time worrying about one problem or another over the past few days that they all needed a little time to decompress.

"This town is so boring," Emmett complained as he walked down a London street with Harry.

"After living in Forks, how can you possibly call London boring?" Harry asked his brother with a laugh.

"It just is," the curly-haired vampire muttered. "They don't play football right in this country. And people keep staring at me whenever I talk."

"It isn't your American accent that's getting their attention. Everyone stares at you because of how you look. How _we_ look, I should say."

"You're starting to sound as vain as Rosalie," Emmett joked as he stopped to look in the window of a novelty store.

"I most certainly am not," the newborn replied indignantly.

All of the vampires had split up into different groups for the day. Edward and Rosalie were on a much needed hunting trip, Esme and Carlisle were checking out the London museums, and Jasper and Alice were off shopping. Of course 'Jasper and Alice were off shopping' was actually code for 'Jasper was watching his wife model different form-fitting outfits.' That left Harry and Emmett to their own devices.

"We could hit a movie," Harry suggested to his very bored companion.

"Is there anything out that we haven't already seen?"

"I'm sure a London cinema has more to offer than Port Angeles," the younger vampire pointed out.

"Yeah. I guess we can check it out."

The pair shifted course in the direction of where Harry thought he remembered there being a movie theater. He'd seen the theater a couple of times when he was little. His uncle had taken his cousin there multiple times when he was little, but he was never allowed to actually go to the movie; Dudley and Vernon watched the movie while Harry was forced to hold Petunia's purse while she shopped some of the area stores.

"So how did things go with your godfather?"

"Horribly uncomfortable," Harry answered. "The last time I saw him, he called my marriage a mistake and I broke his nose. This time he apologized, I forgave him, and then neither of us knew what to say. When I finished talking to Ron and Hermione, Sirius and I just of sat across from each other at the dinner table. He asked a couple of questions about how married life was treating me. That's about it. I'd never been so grateful to see Molly Weasley show up with dinner."

"Yeah, well you missed your godfather's little chat with your husband," Emmett snickered.

"Edward's been pretty good at avoiding that particular subject. Was it really that bad?"

"It was worse than you can imagine. Black kept talking about how important it was that Edward treat you with respect. I'm not positive, but I think Sirius thinks that you are still a virgin."

The newborn laughed at that. "He thinks that Edward and I have been married since the start of August and that we haven't had sex yet?"

"I don't know if it is so much that he thinks that you're a still a virgin as much as he _wants_ _to believe_ that you're still a virgin. I'm pretty sure he wants to ignore the fact that you've grown up in the time you've been away from here."

Harry kicked a little pebble and then cringed as it skittered across the street and hit the corner of a building hard enough to chip off an equal-sized bit of concrete. Emmett sympathetically patted his little brother on the back.

"So Sirius gave Edward a chat about treating me with respect," Harry mused after his moment of embarrassment had passed. He took a moment to adjust the sunglasses that he was wearing to hide his human blood-tinted eyes from the world. "There has to be a way I can use this to my advantage."

"You wouldn't."

"Oh, but I could, would, and shall. Using this sort of thing against one's spouse is one of the perks of being married."

"Now I know you're spending too much time with Rosalie," Emmett said between bouts of barking laughter.

"Actually, I got that little tip from Alice."

"I had no idea that our dear sister was so devious," Emmett said with a smirk. "Just remember to use your powers for good and not evil."

"Of course, good sir. I have no intention of using my Edward's embarrassment for anything but sexy, sexy fun. And that qualifies as 'good' in my book."

"Ugh, it's bad enough I can hear it when the two of you are actually going at it like rabbits. I don't want to have to hear you talk about it as well," the older vampire complained in overly dramatized disgust.

Harry laughed as the pair continued on their path. They continued to joke happily all the way to the theater. When they arrived at their destination, however, Harry saw something that made him freeze in his tracks: standing in front of the theater were the Dursleys.

Harry felt like fate was mocking him for thinking about the Dursleys when he suggested the movie.

Vernon was just as large as ever, though his thick, dark hair and moustache were a bit grayer than Harry remembered. Otherwise, he looked the same as he did the last time Harry had seen him over two years earlier. Petunia hadn't changed in the slightest; she still looked like the awful lovechild of a giraffe and a horse. And Dudley still looked like a miniature, blond-version of Vernon. The teen's eyes, however, seemed to have softened considerably. Then again, that simply could have been Harry's imagination.

"What is it?" Emmett asked when Harry stopped abruptly.

"It's the Durlseys."

"What?" Harry's brother asked in alarm. He followed his younger brother's gaze to the three individuals who were chatting merrily outside the front of the movie theater.

Emmett didn't know much about Harry's childhood. He knew that the boy had been very unhappy and that the Durlseys had been neglectful at best and outright abusive at worst. The only story that he could recall about Harry's life before going to Hogwarts involved Petunia Dursley burning Harry with a hot spoon for failing at some task in the kitchen. And Emmett only knew that story because Rosalie had miserably recounted the story to him one night. Seeing the people that had caused his little brother so much grief, Emmett had to work very hard to not go up to the horrid people and do something that, while he was certain he wouldn't regret, would upset Harry greatly.

It surprised the older vampire when Harry began to walk confidently towards his only living blood relations. "What are you doing?"

"It would be impolite to not say 'hello' after all these years," Harry replied darkly. He closed the distance between himself and his aunt, uncle, and cousin in a confident stride. "Why hello there, _Uncle_. Fancy seeing you here"

Vernon turned from his conversation with his wife and looked at the newcomer. The large man took in the youth's pale appearance and expensive clothes. It took him a long moment before he could see any trace of his hated nephew anywhere in the figure. "Y-You," he said almost accusatorily.

"Now if you use that tone with me, I'll start to think that maybe you didn't miss me these last two years."

"Potter," Petunia said as she finally connected the dots and realized who it was that had interrupted her conversation.

"Hello, _Aunty_."

"Harry? Is that you?" Dudley asked. His kind tone took Harry by surprise.

"Yes, Dudley. It's me."

"And I'm Emmett," Harry's companion interjected into the conversation. "Harry's brother-in-law."

"Brother-in-law?" Vernon questioned suspiciously. "I knew you'd end up in this kind of trouble some day. Probably got some girl in trouble and had to marry her, didn't you? And now you've tracked us down to try and hit us up for money to support the two of you. Always the lay-about and delinquent."

"Why do you insist on lying and spewing that bile, even when there isn't an audience to play for?" Harry asked the man. He didn't expect any answer beyond Vernon's typical sputtering and the reddening of the large man's face; Harry wasn't disappointed. "I just came over because I saw you standing here and there's something that I've wanted to say to you for a very long time."

Petunia looked at Harry in barely disguised interest, wondering what the nephew she pretending didn't exist was about to say to her.

"You may be the most awful human being I've ever met. And I've met some really terrible people in my life. You are vile and my mother would be ashamed to call you her sister. She would be almost as ashamed of you as your parents would be." As soon as Harry had said his short piece, he turned on his heel and started to walk off.

"Ungrateful brat!" Vernon said fiercely before Harry could get more than two steps away. "After everything we gave you."

The vampire turned back around and regarded his uncle. "The only thing you ever gave was an example of what not to be. I look at the way you treat people and every day of my life I tell myself: be different. So for that one life lesson, I'll thank you. But not for anything else."

Vernon tried unsuccessfully to respond, but all he could do was open and close his mouth and make choking sounds. Harry resumed his course away from the trio with Emmett hot on his tail.

"How satisfying was that?" Emmett asked.

"Very. I can still hear them both sputtering back there."

The vampires managed to get a full block away when someone shouting for Harry caused them both to stop and turn back around once more. This time it was Dudley Dursley.

"What do you want, Dudley?" Harry asked his cousin as neutrally as he could.

"Well, uh," the large teenager fumbled for a moment. "It's just, you didn't say anything to me."

"What?" Harry asked in shock.

"I was pretty awful to you too, so why didn't you say anything to me? You've earned it."

Now it was Harry's turn to gape with his mouth opening and closing like a fish. "Are you saying you want me to say something nasty to you?"

"I don't really want to you to say something nasty, but you should. I was a real bully to you when we were kids. Then you saved my life and got tossed out on the street. I've always wanted the chance to thank you and to apologize for all the things I did back then."

Harry took a long moment to stare at his cousin, catalogue the differences that he'd undergone in the past two years, and compose his response. "You were your father's son. You treated me exactly how he wanted you to treat me. If you're trying to be a better person, then that means you recognize that fact. I don't think you need to apologize to me. Trying to change is good enough for me."

"I do still need to apologize," Dudley said with a nod of his head. "I'm sorry for all of it. The 'Harry Hunting' and ignoring why my parents were doing to you. And I'm grateful you saved me. I really owe you one."

"Let's call it even for the tail that Hagrid gave you," Harry said with a good natured laugh.

Dudley gave an embarrassed chuckle. "Listen, if you ever want to, I don't know, get together at the holidays for a drink or something . . ."

"Maybe," Harry said. "But can I ask you one favor?"

"Anything."

Harry leaned in close to his cousin and whispered to him. "I think that being a wizard or witch is at least partly genetic. So if you have a kid that's magical, keep being a better person than your mum and dad, okay."

Dudley pulled back. He had a sad smile on his face. It was the smile of someone who recognized the failings of his own parents. "Sure thing, Harry."

The vampire smiled at his cousin one last time before turning around and walking away. "I'm never going to see him again," he said softly to his brother as they headed back in the direction of the hotel.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in the main room of their suite. Having had their attempt at going out to a movie interrupted by Harry's decision to get closure, the duo decided to watch some of the movies available at the hotel.

Rosalie and Edward returned after the third movie of the afternoon. They each greeted their spouses warmly.

"So, what did you do today?" Edward asked his husband as he slid his hands down Harry's side to rest on the smaller vampire's hips.

"A little of this, a little of that," Harry answered in a sing-song voice. "We can talk about it on our date."

"Date?" Edward asked.

"Yup. Even though we're married, I think we should continue to have weekly date nights. It's one of the things you do in a relationship when you _respect_ your partner."

Harry managed to maintain a straight face despite the way Edward's eyes became as big around as saucers at the reference to his chat with Harry's godfather. That passive resolve crumbled when his husband began to mercilessly chase him around the hotel suite.


	56. Chapter 56

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 56: Eavesdropping**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Fifty-Five – Eavesdropping**

It was only Harry and Edward that went to meet the headmaster on Friday evening. To both vampires' surprise, the aged wizard was alone.

"No Moody tonight?" Harry asked his former headmaster after he had secured the door.

"Not this evening. His eye would have permitted him to see this," Albus Dumbledore said as he walked over to the rickety wooden table in the center of the room where a velvet bag was sitting. He pinched the bottom of the bag and lifted it up in order to dump its contents out. A golden locket with emeralds set into its cover in the shape of a stylized 'S' clatter out of the bag onto the tabletop.

"You got the locket off of that Umbridge woman," Edward noted.

"Yes. She is currently wearing a fake, and so is none the wiser."

"How did you manage the switch?" Harry inquired.

"It was simple enough to arrange a meeting with her. She is the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic and so is responsible for a number of administrative tasks associated with the Wizengamot. In my capacity as Chief Warlock, I arranged a meeting with her, stunned her, switched the necklaces, and then modified her memory of the whole affair. As far as she knows, we had a quiet meeting discussing the Minister's position on some proposed modifications to the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans and some related matters at the International Confederation of Wizards."

"Sneaky," Harry said with an approving smirk.

"I am rather well known for my shenanigans," the Chief Warlock chuckled.

"I suppose we should destroy it now, right?" Edward asked in a no-nonsense tone of voice.

"Yes, indeed. I brought it here rather than simply destroying it with the Sword of Gryffindor in my office because I would like to test our little theory about vampire venom. I am fairly confident that the venom that turned Harry here into a vampire destroyed any fragment of Voldemort's soul that may have attached to him, but it would be best to be sure. I've checked the locket with every spell I can think of—a list which, if you forgive my lack of humility, is rather extensive—and I can find no risk to either of you."

"I'll do it," both Edward and Harry said at the same time.

"Sorry, dear, but this is my turn. You drank the potion, so I bite the locket," the younger of the two vampires said. His husband frowned at him, but said nothing.

Harry walked over to the dilapidated table and picked up the locket. He turned it over in his stone-like hand and examined it before placing it between his jaws. He heard what sounded like a distant cry as he allowed his inhumanly hard teeth to crack the cover and seep some of his venom into the locket. The vampire pulled the locket out of his mouth and examined it. The locket looked mostly the same, except for a large, curving crack that zigzagged across the cover and the impressions of Harry's teeth cutting the 'S' in half.

"I take it that sound was the soul fragment being destroyed?" Harry asked.

"Most certainly. I heard something similar when I destroyed the ring. And, if I remember your recounting correctly, the shade of Tom Riddle screamed out in rage and agony when you destroyed the diary," the old wizard said.

"It did."

"That's four down then. The ring, the locket, the diary, and the connection between Harry and Voldemort. That still leaves the cup, possibly something of Rowena Ravenclaws, and an unknown item," Edward summarized the situation.

"And the piece of Voldemort's soul that still resides within his own body," the headmaster added. "Or rather, that now resides in the body he made for himself the night he attempted to murder Harry in the graveyard during the Triwizard Tournament."

"So what's next? Do we try finding the cup or do we start researching the legends of Ravenclaw?" the bronze-haired immortal asked.

"I have been reviewing the memories and other pieces of information that I have gathered on Voldemort, and there are still a great many places to check for the cup and any other unknown Horcruxes. He traveled far and wide after he left Hogwarts as Tom Riddle and before he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort. I will continue my search, but in the meantime, perhaps you could begin reviewing the legends. I can give you several books on the topic that you can review to see if there is anything other than the diadem that may have been used to create a Horcrux."

"Knowing what items we're searching for sounds good to me," Harry replied. "How soon can you get the books to us?"

"By our next meeting, whenever we schedule that to be."

"Alright," the darker-haired vampire replied. He then turned to his husband and asked, "When do you think that next meeting should be?"

Before Edward could reply, Dumbledore interrupted. "Actually, what I have to ask you next may impact that."

Both of the vampires gave the wizard their full attention.

"You are both aware of the situation involving Draco Malfoy," the old man said by way of a preamble. "Severus has learned through some of his contacts that Bellatrix Lestrange will be coming to Hogsmeade sometime this weekend to check-up on her nephew and provide him any support that she can. It is very . . . out of character for her. Bellatrix has very little love for anyone other than her master, if you can even characterize her twisted devotion as 'love.' We believe that she only assisted Narcissa in extracting the Unbreakable Vow from Severus because she hoped to uncover whether or not he was a traitor. We are, therefore, not sure why she would be willing to go out of her way help Draco."

"And this affects the timing of our next meeting how?" Harry asked.

"I was rather hoping you would be willing to spy on the meeting for me," the headmaster explained.

"Us?" Edward asked in surprise. "Why not have Snape do it? He's your spy, after all."

"Although the Unbreakable Vow has sufficiently proven his loyalty to Voldemort such that Bellatrix now trusts him, Draco is another matter entirely. He believes that Severus is attempting to 'steal his glory.' The boy believes that Severus plans to enhance his own standing amongst Voldemort's forces by completing the task himself."

"In other words, he won't allow Snape to attend the meeting because the little twat is afraid that Snape will beat him to the finish line," Harry said as he crossed his arms and started to think about the situation. "You want us to spy on the meeting because Snape can't."

"That is correct."

Harry and Edward exchanged another look. Vampires are very still creatures by comparison to humans. Their facial expressions don't shift in response to shock, uncertainty, or worry as much as a human's expressions do. Despite the blank expressions on the newlyweds' faces, they could read one another's eyes as easily as most humans can read books. A silent exchange played out between the pair before an answer was given to the headmaster.

"We'll do it, but we'll need more information," Edward answered the headmaster's request.

Albus Dumbledore nodded his head. "I am afraid I don't know the specifics of when Bellatrix and Mr. Malfoy intend to meet; only that it is to be at some point this weekend. As you are well aware, Harry, students may come and go throughout Hogsmeade Weekends, so their meeting could be at any point during the day tomorrow or Sunday."

"Do you know where?" the youngest Mr. Cullen asked.

"They likely intend to use a private room above the Three Broomsticks, a room here at the Hog's Head, or the Shrieking Shack. My plan is for you to lie in wait here. I will ensure that Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger are stationed at the Shrieking Shack and I have personally reserved all of the rooms at the Three Broomsticks. These steps will ensure that the Hog's Head is the only option for their meeting."

"And if they pick another location that you haven't considered?" Edward asked.

"Then we will miss this opportunity. Unfortunate, but neither devastating nor unexpected. I will not ask you to try and find the meeting; keeping Voldemort blind to your presence and the threat you pose to him is paramount."

"Agreed," Edward said.

"If there isn't anything else . . ." the headmaster said as he picked up the ruined locket and made his way to the door. When neither of the vampires attempted to say anything or to stop him, he continued speaking. "I shall return on Sunday night to speak with you again. I believe that if you go a few yards beyond the edge of the village, your mobile communication devices will allow you contact your family." The old wizard then left the two vampires alone.

"Now he has us spying for him," Edward muttered.

"Sucks, I know. But if he can't get anyone inside the room, our enhanced senses probably provide the best chance of hearing their plans."

"Unless they use magic to keep us from hearing anything," Edward pointed out darkly.

"What's with the tone?"

"The headmaster should know as well as we do that Malfoy is likely to use magic to prevent people from overhearing. Do you think he suspects about my ability?" the older vampire asked his mate in an unnecessarily hushed voice.

Harry's brow furrowed. "I don't know. I'd like to think that he's just hoping that Malfoy doesn't use that precaution or that the spells don't muffle the noise enough for vampires to not hear anything. But . . ." he trailed off.

"It's something we need to consider. We haven't mentioned anything about my ability. Or Alice's or Jasper's, for that matter. It's possible he knows more about us than he's letting on."

"Yeah," Harry said distractedly. "But he's been so open since we came back. I want to believe the best of him in this."

"Hope for the best and prepare for the worst."

"That line is tired," the younger vampire said with a laugh.

The next forty-five hours would have been tedious for a mortal. It wasn't for a vampire, however. As creatures that are capable of literally surviving for the rest of eternity, a span of almost two days was little more than a heartbeat. Harry knew that the time should have felt interminable, but it didn't. Perhaps his new perspective on time was why the remaining months he had to kill Lord Voldemort seemed like grains of sand slipping through his fingers.

Other than making the suggested call to the rest of the family to update them on the situation, Harry and Edward had nothing to do for two days but to enjoy one another's company.

Although there were many wizards and witches who went to the Hog's Head, most came at night and were far too heavy to be Draco Malfoy. It was late Sunday afternoon when Harry heard what he was waiting for: the sound of a human about the size of Ronald Weasley entering the bar.

The figure wasn't alone; he was accompanied by two larger, significantly heavier individuals whom Harry was certain were Crabbe and Goyle, Draco Malfoy's goons. As if to confirm his suspicions, Harry next heard Draco Malfoy speaking in sharp commands from the entrance of the Hog's Head.

"Crabbe, Goyle," he barked. "Watch the staircase. If anyone tries to follow me up, you know what to do."

The figure that Harry was now certain was his old rival then walked over to the bar in large, confident strides. "I need a room," Draco Malfoy said in the aristocratic tone that Harry could barely remember but that knew belonged to his old nemesis. The vampires could also hear the sound of several metal coins being dropped on the bar.

The barkeep muttered something about 'bossy kids' before telling Malfoy to head upstairs and use the second door on the right.

After Draco Malfoy went up the creaking stairs, he entered the room immediately next to Harry and Edward's. About a minute after the blond went into the room, things went very quiet. The two immortals could no longer hear any sound coming from the room to the right of their own, not even the sounds of the wizard breathing or his heart beating.

The vampires shared a knowing look. They continued to wait in silence until they heard another person enter the pub. This figure was lighter than either Crabbe or Goyle, but still sounded larger than most school-aged children. To Harry's amusement, Crabbe and Goyle could be heard scampering away from the figure to give her plenty of space; their hearts raced from the moment the woman opened the door and continued to race until after she passed the duo by. Those clues told both vampires that it was Bellatrix Lestrange who had entered the building.

The lighter figure walked over to the bar. "I'm meeting someone," she said in a soft, almost bored tone.

Harry couldn't put his finger on it, but the voice sounded familiar. Like the memory of a half-forgotten dream. He hated that feeling, but having it was becoming something of a regular occurrence in recent weeks. It drove him crazy every time he was confronted with something that reminded him of his mortal life that he couldn't quite remember.

The woman walked up the stairs in a slow and deliberate manner; like a woman on a mission. The sound of the heels of her shoes hitting the wooden planks reverberated throughout the Hog's Head so loud that Harry was fairly positive that every mortal in the entire building could hear. The newborn paid attention to the sound and tracked the woman to the door of the next room. Once there she knocked once, waited a second, knocked twice, waited another second, and then knocked three times. It was a crude method for a witch to confirm her identity, but it was effective.

The door opened and then the witch vanished from the vampires' senses. They both knew that whatever sounds she was making were being hidden by Draco Malfoy's spell, but it was still disconcerting the way they could hear her heartbeat one second and then not the next. Harry wondered if that was what it was like to hear someone being hit with the Killing Curse.

The young vampire was about to ask his husband what he thought they should do in light of the fact that they weren't going to be able to hear any of the conversation when he caught sight of his husband's eyes. The vampire's face was impassive, but his eyes told Harry that he was concentrating very hard. Whatever spell Draco Malfoy had cast on the room may have prevented the vampires from hearing the words he and his companion spoke, but it didn't protect what they thought.

After several minutes, a smile spread across Edward's face. The younger vampire was very intrigued and wanted to ask him what caused that smile, but he didn't want to risk breaking his husband's concentration. Instead, he waited patiently until the meeting was over. After about twenty minutes, the door of the next room opened and the woman left. A few minutes later, the door opened again and Draco Malfoy left.

Harry waited until after Malfoy, Lestrange, Crabbe, and Goyle had all left the building to ask his husband what he'd heard.

"I know where the cup is," was Edward's simple reply.


	57. Chapter 57

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 57: A Deadly Plan**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Fifty-Six – A Deadly Plan**

"What?" Harry asked his mate in surprise.

"That Lestrange woman has it," Edward replied with a smile.

"Please, tell me everything."

"Well, I can tell you everything I know. Just like Snape and the headmaster, I can't hear Malfoy's thoughts. But I could hear every insane thing that woman thought, which includes her thinking over what Malfoy said to her. So, I got all of the conversation except for the bits and pieces of what Malfoy said to her that she just flat-out ignored.

"She's helping Malfoy because of his father's failure. Lucius Malfoy messed up big time by sending the diary to Hogwarts in your second year. You and I both know why Voldemort's pissed off about that. Lucius Malfoy's actions created a stain on his entire family, including Bellatrix. Voldemort is going through the family one person at a time and assigning them the same impossible task as punishment for the destruction of the diary. Lestrange is helping Draco Malfoy to get herself back in Voldemort's good graces."

"And the Cup of Hufflepuff?" Harry asked.

"I'm getting to it. When Malfoy was whining about how hard it was, Lestrange's mind wandered. She was mentally bemoaning how far she's fallen. She kept thinking things like 'He trusted me above all others to keep his most important treasure safe.' That, naturally, caught my attention. Eventually, I got from her jumbled thoughts that the 'treasure' was an old cup with a badger on it."

"Definitely Hufflepuff's Cup," the younger vampire interjected. "'His most important treasure,' eh? That definitely sounds like a Horcrux to me. And now we know who has it."

"That's the good news."

"And the bad?"

"She has it in her Gringotts vault."

Harry stared at his husband in horror for a long moment before burying his face in his hands. "Oh no," he muttered. "It figures it would be hidden in one of the most secure places in Britain."

"But it isn't impenetrable," the older vampire pointed out. "There have been break-ins before, right?"

"There has," Harry admitted. "Voldemort managed a break-in during my first year. He tried to steal the Stone, but it had been removed before he managed to get there. I have no idea how he managed it though."

"Do you know anyone who might know?"

"No," the darker-haired immortal said with a shake of his head. "There's just no way that the goblins would have let that kind of information get out. If it did, it would have given other robbers a good idea. Hell, they probably didn't want the break-in reported at all." Harry thought for a moment before adding, "Now that I think about though, Bill Weasley works for Gringotts. Or at least he used to. But even if he does know how the break-in occurred, the goblins are bound to have fixed whatever problems they had with their security. The same method won't work twice."

"I guess you're right," Edward said with noticeable disappointment. "We should at least consider asking him for help. As a last resort."

"We could ask the headmaster for help," Harry suggested.

"I'm still not sure that we can trust him."

"What do we tell him then?"

"I don't think we can tell him anything. He's bound to know that Malfoy used a spell to prevent eavesdropping. If we reveal that we know anything at all, then it's as good as telling him that I have a special ability. If we don't tell him anything, it may force him to reveal if he knows about my power."

"Was there anything that you overheard that we absolutely have to tell him?" Harry questioned uncertainly. "Anything that might affect the welfare of the students?"

"No," Edward replied. "Malfoy is completely clueless about how to get at the headmaster. He spent most of the time whining about how impossible the task was and begging Bellatrix to help him. She insulted him a few times, told him that he'd better have some results by her next visit, and told him that she'd work on things on her end, but that was it."

"Did they arrange for another meeting?"

"They already had it arranged: the first Sunday of next month. Same time and place."

"We need to be here for it," Harry said firmly. "The headmaster doesn't need to know when and where the next meeting is. We can just keep spying on them and keep our mouths shut about what we overhear until we hear something that we absolutely must tell Dumbledore about."

"My thoughts exactly," Edward said.

Both vampires could hear the front door of the pub open and then the now-familiar, even paced steps of Professor Dumbledore. The vampires exchanged conspiratorial looks and then silently waited as the old wizard conferred momentarily with the barkeep and then proceeded up the stairs.

When the headmaster arrived in the room with an armful of books, he smiled benevolently at the two immortals. "Good evening, boys. I trust you've found ways to occupy your time."

"Of course," Harry responded evenly.

"Good, good," the Chief Warlock said with a pleasant nodding of his head. "I received word that Mr. Malfoy is en route to the castle and the bartender has informed me that he came here for his meeting, as we expected. Were you able to overhear anything?"

"I'm afraid not, Professor Dumbledore. About a minute after Draco Malfoy went into the next room, everything over there went totally quiet. We couldn't even hear his heart beating."

Headmaster Dumbledore sighed wearily. "I expected as much. The boy is becoming increasingly paranoid."

"The only thing I could hear was when he arrived, when the woman arrived, and when they both left," Harry said. It was the truth; those were the only parts of the meeting that _he_ had overhead. Lies by omission were far easier for the newborn that outright lies.

"Yes, well, thank you for the effort, nonetheless. I do apologize for having wasted two days of your time. I have brought you the books I promised," the wizard said as he offered the stack of four books to Edward.

The vampire took the ancient and decaying tomes and examined them. "We'll be sure to be careful with them."

"I am sure Madam Pince would be most grateful to hear you say that," the headmaster said with a smile.

"It will take us a couple of days to go through all of this," Harry said. "How about we meet again on Wednesday night?"

"That is acceptable. Three days should give me time enough to try and narrow down the search for Hufflepuff's Cup."

"We'll see you on Wednesday then," Edward said.

The headmaster departed at that point to return to his school. Harry and Edward were forced to remain at the Hog's Head until the sun went the rest of the way down so that they could leave under cover of darkness.

The four books were passed around from family member to family member over the next couple of days. By Wednesday morning, Edward felt like he'd read the same handful of stories about Rowena Ravenclaw so often that he was certain he was able to recite the stories word-for-word from memory. Sure, it was interesting to read stories about the place that Harry had gone to school for four years, but reading the same material over and over again was monotonous.

Edward was also becoming increasingly concerned about his husband. Harry was clearly struggling with something, but was keeping it to himself. The older vampire could hear bits and pieces of his mate's thoughts about the Horcrux that they now knew resided within Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts Wizarding Bank, but the younger vampire was extremely careful to only think about it when he was alone. Every time Edward got close enough to be detected, Harry immediately began to think about the Ravenclaw legends.

Harry's distraction had not gone unnoticed by other members of the family. Everyone knew that the youngest member of the coven was struggling with something, but they didn't know what. Through Jasper's thoughts, Edward knew that whatever was on Harry's mind, it had him scared and more than a little ashamed.

The older vampire was willing to let his husband break their 'no secrets' rule for a few days, but he'd begin to press the issue if Harry didn't come clean by Friday.

"So let's recap what we do know about this," Carlisle said midmorning on Wednesday.

"Well, the stories reference a number of pieces of jewelry, a couple of inventions, and some books owned by Rowena Ravenclaw, but none of her possessions is mentioned more than once or twice except for this diadem and her wand," Alice began as she motioned to an illustration of the famous witch.

"The diadem was said to be enchanted to make the person who wears it smarter," Emmett continued.

"Wiser," Rosalie corrected her husband. "All of the books say 'wiser,' not 'smarter.'"

Alice took back over at this point. "There are some discrepancies as to what it looks like. Some illustrations have it looking like a thin, silver tiara while others have it looking like a large headdress."

"The only consistent detail about its appearance in all of the books is that is has an engraving on it. 'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure,'" Jasper added.

"Do we agree that the headmaster is right? That if anything of Rowena Ravenclaw's is a Horcrux, this diadem is the most likely candidate?" Carlisle asked. After all of the vampires nodded their heads, the coven leader asked, "Then does anyone have any ideas as to what became of the diadem?"

"There are no references to it after Ravenclaw's death," Esme pointed out. "And there are no references to her giving it away. There is a good chance that, if she was still in possession of it at the time of her death, it was inherited by her daughter, Helena."

"Who disappeared at about the same time as her mother died," Edward added. "None of these books mention what happened to her beyond saying that she disappeared."

"Maybe we're going about this wrong," Jasper said thoughtfully. "We know what we're looking for, but its trail went cold centuries ago. Maybe we should try to map Voldemort's path out of Hogwarts. Retrace his path and search for the diadem along the way."

"It's a viable strategy," the vampiric doctor said. "But not one we want to pin all of our hopes on."

"Harry," Esme said softly. "Do you have anything to add? You're awfully quiet."

"Oh, sorry about that. I'm a little distracted."

"We know," Emmett said in a joking tone as he leaned back in his chair and placed his hands behind his head. "What has your little head all mucked up?"

Harry looked around at the expectant faces of his family before confessing his thoughts to them. "I think we have to kill Bellatrix Lestrange."

"What?" Alice and Esme asked all at once. Carlisle, Rosalie, Edward, and Jasper were all surprised by Harry's statement, but didn't show it. Emmett, by comparison, jerked forward from his semi-reclined position so hard that he would have toppled forward out of his chair if he wasn't a vampire.

"Please, hear me out," Harry begged.

"Go ahead, Harry," Edward said. He could hear his husband's thoughts on the topic loud and clear now. The older vampire took his husband's hand in a show of support.

"Bellatrix has a Horcrux locked away in her vault. If we can't get in to get at it, I'm thinking that what we need to do is have someone go in and bring it out to us."

"But who would do that?" Jasper asked.

"Her sister, Narcissa. We make a deal with her: we protect both Draco and his mother until the end of this war and, in return, Narcissa must renounce the Vow she extracted from Snape and give us the Cup. We kill Bellatrix. Then Narcissa inherits the Cup and gives it to us. We get the Horcrux and, with the Bonder dead and Narcissa willing to foreswear the Vow, we get Snape and the headmaster in the clear."

"That might actually work," Jasper said in surprise. "There are a couple of problems with it though. First off, what if Narcissa isn't the first in line to inherit from her sister? Secondly, how do we even get to Narcissa to offer her this deal?"

"I'm not saying that this is a perfect plan, but it is the only one I've been able to come up with. How else do we get the Cup?"

"I think we should go for it," Rosalie said firmly. "It's our best shot. Kill two birds with one stone."

"Agreed," Emmett concurred.

"And the rest of you? This is kind of an all-or-nothing thing," Harry pressed.

"I'm in," Jasper said as his wife nodded her head up and down.

Esme looked a bit uncertain, but, after sparing a glance at her husband, agreed. Carlisle's agreement came a heartbeat later. That only left Edward.

"Edward?" Harry asked uncertainly.

"This is exactly what you were afraid of," he said softly. "You were afraid of getting pulled deeper into all of this. Of being forced to kill someone other than Voldemort."

"Jasper was right the other day. This is a kill or be killed situation. Either she dies or the headmaster does. And unless we have irrefutable proof that he is up to something, I'm not prepared to let him die. This solves the problem of the Unbreakable Vow and gets us another Horcrux."

Edward hesitated a moment before giving his verdict on the plan. "If you're certain about this, then I'm in."


	58. Chapter 58

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 58: Singer**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Fifty-Seven – Singer**

The next meeting between Harry, Edward, and Dumbledore was on Wednesday as planned. The youngest vampire of the Cullen coven was more than a little bit worried about the meeting. Without some sort of evidence that the headmaster was up to something underhanded, he didn't feel comfortable lying to the wizard.

"I fear that I have no new information about the location of Hufflepuff's Cup," the silver-haired wizard said after greeting the two vampires.

"Nothing at all?" Edward questioned.

"Alas, I have hit the proverbial brick wall. I know that, as Tom Riddle, Voldemort murdered the Cup's previous owner not long after he left Hogwarts. I have mapped out the path that he took during his travels after Hogwarts, both before and after he seized the Cup, but have found no place of such prominence to his life that it would make a likely hiding place. I believe that the search for Hufflepuff's Cup may require us to do in-person inspections of all places along that route where Voldemort spent any mentionable period of time."

"That sounds like it will take a long time," Harry pointed out. "Perhaps we should switch tracks and focus on the search for the Diadem of Ravenclaw for a while. We might find a clue about the Cup's location while searching for the Diadem."

"A fine plan. I take it then that your review of the literature has caused you to reach the same conclusion as I."

"Yes,' Harry responded. "The only items of significance that receive more than one or two mentions in the books you gave us are Ravenclaw's wand and her diadem."

"And the diadem is a unique object often associated with Rowena Ravenclaw," the headmaster said with a slow nod of his head. "We are in agreement with two of the remaining three Horcruxes then: the Cup and the Diadem."

"But aren't we left with the same problem?" Edward asked. "We don't have any idea where to search for the Diadem, do we?"

"There may be someone we can speak to about the Diadem," the old wizard replied.

"Who?" The newborn asked in surprise.

Professor Dumbledore placed his hands behind his back and began to pace in front of the room's darkened fireplace. "The ghosts of Houses Ravenclaw and Slytherin may hold some answers."

"The ghosts? Why would they know anything about it?" Edward inquired.

"I'm not sure if they do," the headmaster replied. "The Grey Lady and the Bloody Baron, as the ghosts of Ravenclaw and Slytherin are respectively called, are mysteries to all of the castle's inhabitants. The annals of past headmasters say that they simply showed up one day and took up the mantle of house ghosts. Much like the Fat Friar, the Grey Lady and the Bloody Baron are only known by their descriptive aliases; I am aware of no one who knows who they were in life."

"Then why do you think that they may have information about the Diadem?" Edward pressed.

"The timing of their arrival. The annals say that both ghosts arrived less than a year after Rowena Ravenclaw's death. If they were in the castle at that time, they may be the only individuals who can provide us with first-hand accounts of the events of that era. If Ravenclaw still owned the Diadem at her death, then that suggests that the Diadem was still within the castle where she lived and died. The ghosts are the only ones we can consult from that time; perhaps they know what became of the Diadem either from first- or secondhand accounts."

"It's a long shot," Harry noted. "But I agree that it is a shot we should take."

"How do we go about doing this?" Edward asked. "Will you do the questioning or do Harry and I need to come to the castle?"

"It would be better for me to question the Bloody Baron on my own. He is the ghost of House Slytherin and is known for being a bit, shall we say, intolerant of those whom are different."

"In other words, he won't talk to vampires," the younger vampire surmised.

"Actually, he still wouldn't talk to either you if you weren't vampires. Edward, to my knowledge, was a Muggle in life and you, Harry, were a Halfblood."

"Really living up the Pureblood stereotype of his house, isn't he?" Harry asked rhetorically.

"He sounds like a real upstanding guy," Edward muttered.

The headmaster chortled in response before saying, "Did you really believe that a ghost called the _Bloody_ Baron would be a warm and fuzzy fellow?"

"How about the Grey Lady, then? Should Edward and I question her or should we just wait for you to question her as well?" the darker-haired vampire asked a tad impatiently.

"I have questioned her about various matters over the years, but she is very tightlipped about herself. But she has, from time to time, shown interest in seventh year boys. I believe that the Grey Lady might be a bit more receptive to two strapping young lads than she would be to another of my endeavors to uncover aspects of her past," the old wizard said. "Unless, of course, if you do not feel comfortable going to the castle, I will understand completely."

Harry looked at his husband and then back at Headmaster Dumbledore. "I think we can handle it."

"Excellent. Then let us be off to the castle," the headmaster said as he moved towards the door.

The vampires exchanged surprised glances at how quickly things were progressing, but soon found themselves pulling up their hoods and following the headmaster down the stairs. Harry had expected the wizard to lead them to the fireplace, but instead he led them out the front door.

"Headmaster?" Harry questioned.

"Yes, Harry."

"Why didn't we just take the floo?"

The old wizard stopped abruptly on the muddy lane that ran in front of the Hog's Head and regarding Harry over his half-moon spectacles. "I assumed that Edward was inexperienced at such travel. I feared that he might pop out of one of the wrong fireplaces as you yourself did on your first attempt at flooing. If he knows how to travel via floo, then by all means, let us take the more direct route."

There was a little area in the back of Harry's mind that considered agreeing to use the floo just because of the hilarity that would ensue if Edward did pop up inside of Snape's fireplace. But the newborn quickly squashed the idea. "No, no. Walking is great."

The headmaster gave Harry an amused smile at the quick and awkward way he put an end to the floo discussion before continuing to lead Harry and Edward back towards the castle.

It was a mere ten minutes later that Harry, Edward, and Headmaster Dumbledore crested the last hill between Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. When the newborn reached the top of the hill, the castle came into view and almost took his unnecessary breath away. Hogwarts Castle was as magnificent as ever. From the lake where the giant squid was splashing about to the highest tip of the astronomy tower, the building looked like it hadn't changed one bit. Despite it being a very cloudy night, much of the structure was visible to even human eyes because of the dozens of torches that were littered about.

"What are you looking at?" Edward asked as he watched his husband marveling at something in the distance.

"The castle, of course," the younger vampire replied.

"All I see are some ruins and a 'Danger, Keep Out' sign."

"Keep your eyes on the ruins, my dear boy," the old wizard said as he brandished his wand. "There is an enchantment that protects the castle from prying eyes."

Dumbledore raised the wand up in a large arc and then snapped it towards the ruins. Before Edward's eyes, the ruins and sign melted away as a magnificent castle sprung up from the ground.

"So this is Hogwarts," Edward said softly. The older vampire did his best to sound blasé about the sight, but he couldn't completely hide his awe.

Harry, meanwhile, began to wonder about the implications of his being able to see the castle when the enchantments were still up. Did that mean he'd retained his ability to use magic after his transformation? Or were the castle's protections similar to the Fidelius Charm in that he was able to see the castle despite its protections because he'd seen it once before? The idea that he could see it because he still had his magical blood running in his body was considered and then promptly dismissed because Edward had Harry's magical blood in his system as well.

"Yes it is," Professor Dumbledore said proudly. "The sight never ceases to warm my heart."

The trio stood marveling the ancient castle for a long moment before continuing their trek to the castle. They crossed the large field that separated the hill they were standing upon from the castle grounds. Headmaster Dumbledore wasted no time in using his wand to open the old castle gates and then leading the two vampires across the castle grounds and through the massive door that led to he main entryway.

Once he crossed the threshold of the great door, Harry could smell hundreds of different scents in the castle, most of them human. But one scent in particular caught his attention and became the sole focus of his world.

Edward noticed his mate go eerily still in the entryway. He was going to ask what was going on, but he didn't need to when his husband's hungry thoughts became clear as a the ring of a crystal bell. Harry was, for the first time, feeling a strong desire to feed from a human. One human, in particular, whose scent smelled very savory.

Harry, the older vampire realized, had caught wind of his singer. And that scent was far too tempting for even Harry's amazing compassion and self-control.

The bronze-haired immortal had had his own experience with a singer recently. He spent weeks ignoring the powerful and enticing scent of Isabella Swan. The vampire suffered through that hell because of his desire to remain in Forks near Harry. But his young mate had no such motivation and, because Harry was usually uninterested in humans, no experience at forcing himself to resist strong urges to feed off of humans the way the rest of the family, bar Carlisle, had.

Edward knew that he couldn't spare a single moment. Without a word to the headmaster, he raced back to the threshold, caught hold of Harry's midsection, and began to race out of the castle. The younger vampire fought his mate's hold on his person for several minutes, but the angle at which Edward was carrying him limited his ability to fight. Furthermore, Harry no longer had the massive advantage in strength that he once had. By draining much of the human blood from Harry's system, Edward had weakened the dark-haired vampire down to an even playing field with most 'vegetarian' vampires. And by drinking that human blood himself, Edward's strength had vastly increased.

By the time Edward reached the hilltop where the headmaster had revealed the castle to him, Harry had finally stopped struggling. Instead, the newborn clutched tightly to his husband and cursed himself for having been so tempted to run amok inside a school full of children who, despite being trained in magic, were no match for the strength and prowess of a feral vampire.

The older vampire didn't stop running until he had gotten Harry back to the forest on the far side of Hogsmeade. Once there, he placed his husband down on the ground and gave him some space to calm down.

"It was . . . It was like nothing I've ever smelled before," the younger vampire whispered.

"I know."

"Was that what it was like for you all those days sitting next to Bella Swan?"

"Yes. Which is why I am eternally grateful that you pulled that little stunt with your glasses," Edward replied with a strained smile. He was trying to make light of the situation with a joke, but it wasn't very effective.

Harry closed his eyes and took in lung full after lung full of forest air. He focused for several minutes on every scent he could distinguish, from the smallest trace of fern to the powerful and unmistakable odor of decaying field mouse. Pretending for a bit that Hogwarts didn't exist helped the newborn to calm down and regain his self-control.

"Are you alright?" Headmaster Dumbledore's concerned question came a few minutes later and shattered Harry's moment of tranquility.

The younger vampire opened his eyes and looked to where the headmaster was rushing towards him at a speed that a man one-third his age would envy.

"You look like you've taken ill. Which is saying something for a vampire."

"Harry . . . was momentarily overwhelmed by the number of scents. It will pass," Edward lied smoothly.

The vampire's lie may have sounded convincing to a normal person, but Harry knew that it didn't do the trick with the headmaster. Harry knew that the old wizard would see through it in an instant. There was no way that Albus Dumbledore would fall for such a lie. The headmaster was aware that Harry was staying in a London hotel; a school full of children shouldn't have affected Harry so greatly.

"No need to hide my weakness, Edward," Harry said. "Headmaster, I can't go into the castle. There is someone there whose scent is stronger than my willpower is to resist feeding on humans. If I go back into the castle, I fear that I will be pushed past my breaking point."

The headmaster looked at his favorite former pupil in shock and then remorse. "Goodness gracious, if I had any idea how much misery our little trip was going to cause you, I never would have suggested it. I am sorry, Harry. We will find another means of questioning the Grey Lady. Do not trouble yourself about it."

"Thank you, sir," the vampire replied as his husband helped him up off of the forest floor. "If you'll excuse me, I have a very strong urge to hunt."

"Of course, of course. When should I expect you next?"

Harry hesitated before answering. "We'll just go the HQ in a few days when I'm ready."

The old wizard nodded his head. "Very well then. I bid you good evening, boys."

"And you, Mister Dumbledore," Edward replied as he took his husband into the forest to hunt.

As soon as the two vampires were out of the headmaster's sight, they both broke into great sprints to begin their hunt. Harry was so desperate to get something between his jaws that it was painful.


	59. Chapter 59

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 59: Reinforcements**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Fifty-Eight – Reinforcements**

"Who do you think it is?" Emmett asked.

Harry glowered at his older brother before turning his attention back to the television. He wasn't too keen on discussing the identity of his singer, but he recognized that it might be necessary to know who the unlucky person was.

An Individual whose blood was particularly appealing to a specific vampire was called 'la tua cantante' by the Volturi. Literally translated, that phrase means 'your singer.' Harry had been told by Carlisle that the phrase was coined by Aro after he overheard Marcus saying that the blood of a specific Italian woman sang to him. Of the Cullen family, only Emmett, Edward, and Harry have encountered singers. The two that Emmett ran across met very bloody ends, Edward's only singer to date is Isabella Swan, and Harry currently has a singer within Hogwarts Castle.

No one knows why a singer's blood calls to a vampire. Obviously, it isn't mere blood type because all of the members of the Cullen coven have been exposed to members of all the different blood types many times without incident. Some vampires have theorized that there is a deep spiritual bond between the vampire and his or her singer akin to the bond between mates, but that idea has been largely dismissed as nonsense. The idea of Emmett having had not one, but two mates other than Rosalie and that he'd slaughtered them both made Harry snort whenever he thought of it.

No, the allure of a singer was something physical. It was carried in a human's scent and had a profound affect on a vampire's physiology. The throat constricted, the eyes darkened, and all of the other little signs of a vampire's hunger surfaced.

"There are a number of people that can be ruled out," Jasper said from Harry's other side on the couch. "It cannot be anyone that you've had contact with since becoming a vampire. That means that anyone inside of the castle who has been in an Order meeting can't be your singer. That rules out professors Snape, McGonagall, and Dumbledore. It also rules out Ginny and Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger."

"It can't be Draco Malfoy either," Edward added from the little writing desk where he was seated. "We could definitely smell him when he was in the Hog's Head."

"It might be one of the younger students," Emmett suggested. "You were at the Hog's Head for an entire weekend when the students were there. If your singer is too young to be allowed to attend Hogsmeade weekends, then that would explain why you didn't smell him then."

"Perhaps," Carlisle said from his position standing behind the couch. "But Edward and Harry didn't leave their room at all during the weekend until it was time to go to the castle. There is a good chance that the singer wouldn't have come close enough to the pub for his or her scent to have made it inside and up to the second floor. The singer could have come on Saturday and not Sunday or could have left early enough on Sunday that his or her he scent dissipated by the time they traveled back to the castle. That would explain why Harry didn't smell his singer on the streets of Hogsmeade or on the path to the castle. There's also the possibility that the singer might have missed the trip entirely."

"Maybe it's a troublemaker then," Jasper suggested. "A student who was forbidden to go to Hogsmeade as punishment for misbehavior."

"Or a teacher supervising weekend detentions," Harry's mate suggested.

"We don't have enough information at the moment to figure out who it is. We can only rule out a handful of people," the youngest vampire said. He sighed heavily and looked around the room at the male members of his family. After looking at each of the four other vampires once, he did it again. And then a third time.

"What?" his husband asked him.

"Something's not right."

"What do you mean?" Edward asked.

"Alice, Rosalie, and Esme are all three gone."

"Yeah," Emmett said distractedly as he watched the bad vampire movie on the television screen. "They went . . ."

"Went where?" Harry asked after his largest brother trailed off.

"I don't know," the curly-haired vampire said as his brow furrowed. "Come to think of it, I don't really remember when they left. I just remember it getting really quiet."

Harry snickered and Emmett's gentle barb at his absent wife. "How long have they been gone?"

"Three hours," Edward answered.

"I can't believe I didn't notice that they were gone for three hours."

"You were really distracted," the bronze-haired vampire pointed out. "You have a lot on your plate at the moment."

"You're hiding something," Harry accused as he watched his husband carefully avoid making eye contact.

"Me?"

"Yes, you," the newborn said as he rose from the couch and walked over to where his husband was seated. He walked up behind his husband and then leaned forward against the back of the chair, pushing his hands down the front of Edward's shirt as he rested his head awkwardly on the older vampire's neck. "You wouldn't keep a secret from me, now would you, Edward?" he asked innocently.

Edward leaned into Harry's touch. "You can't ask me to ruin the surprise."

"So the women are up to something," the younger vampire said as he nuzzled his husband's ear. "A _respectful_ husband wouldn't let me get blindsided."

Jasper, Emmett, and Carlisle all did their best to stifle their laughs at Harry's reference to the horribly uncomfortable conversation that Edward had had with Sirius Black. Edward spared the three vampires a momentary glare before removing his husband's hands from his shirt and standing up.

"Did you have some horrible torture in mind to make me tell you what I know?" Edward asked as he turned to face his husband.

"Oh, I think I might have a few tricks up my sleeve that can loosen your tongue," Harry replied as he slid the chair away so that there was nothing between him and the taller vampire.

The pair was just about to kiss when Harry stilled as he caught wind of an awful smell. The stench was so odious that, for a few seconds, the newborn couldn't detect the familiar scents of his mother and two sisters that were accompanying it. As the stench neared, Harry was also able to discern that it wasn't one scent, but two different scents traveling closely together.

The vampire focused on the stench as Edward watched him with a smirk. It was familiar, but he just couldn't place it. It smelled strangely like a very potent dog.

Harry's redish-amber eyes widened in surprise when he connected the dots. His husband's smirk morphed into a grin as he recognized the newborn putting the pieces together in his head.

The newborn didn't wait for the two new arrivals to reach the suite; he left Edward, ran to the entryway, and tore open the door. There, standing amidst the three female members of his family, were Leah Clearwater and Jacob Black.

The two shapeshifters looked at Harry in surprise as he stood in the open doorway. They took in his pale skin, his sharper features, and the new color of his eyes.

"Harry!" Jacob shouted as he was the first of the two shapeshifters to come back to his senses.

Despite the way Harry smelled sickeningly sweet to Jacob and the way Jacob smelled like a diseased dog to the vampire, the two friends rushed towards one another and embraced. Leah snapped out of her stupor a moment later and joined in the hug.

"I'm so glad to see you both," the newborn vampire said.

If the shapeshifters had been able to see Harry's eyes, they would have thought he was lying. The vampire was looking past his two friends at Esme, Alice, and Rosalie with cold contempt. There was no doubt in any of the three female vampires' minds that the youngest member of their family was pissed off at them. And with the thoughts racing about the newborn's mind, Edward new that he was in hot water as well.

Harry's face resumed its happy expression as the three old friends disengaged from the hug. Jacob and Leah each took a step back from Harry so that they could continue their inspection of him post-transformation.

"You look, um, good," Leah said. The words sounded like they were very hard for her to say. "You're really cold to the touch, though."

"You look good too," Harry said. "I really don't mean this as awfully as it's going to come out, but what are you doing here?"

Before either of the guardians of La Push could answer, Edward interrupted. "I think that this is a discussion best had somewhere other than the hallway."

"Oh, right," the dark-haired vampire said in mild embarrassment before leading the newcomers into the suite.

"Swanky," the alpha said as he looked about the posh room.

"Yeah, it's nice," Harry said impatiently. "Back to my question: what are you doing here?"

"A group of ruthless non-'vegetarian' vampires gives you until the end of the year to kill the evil wizard who murdered your parents and is now the head of a large and powerful army of wizards and all manner of other evil creatures and your question is why we're here?" Leah asked incredulously. "We're your friends, Harry. Where else in the world would we be but right at your side."

Harry shot another dark glare at Alice who was smiling pleasantly back at him.

"Before you try to send us back, you should know that it won't work," Jacob said firmly. "Things back home are covered, so there's nowhere else we have to be. And there's no way in hell that we're not going to do everything we can to help you out."

"But-" Harry started.

"No 'buts,' little man," Leah said with an almost Rosalie-like tone of superiority. "We're staying and that's final."

The young vampire frowned at his friends and crossed his arms over his chest belligerently. "Damn," he muttered in defeat, much to the amusement of the others present.

Much of the remainder of the day was spent catching up. Jacob and Leah filled Harry in on what he'd missed in Forks. After those three minutes were up, Harry filled them in on what they'd missed thus far in Britain. He told them about the Horcruxes, their suspicions regarding the headmaster knowing more than he was letting on, and the unfortunate location of Harry's singer.

When the shapeshifters finally crashed for the evening, Harry took Edward by the arm and roughly pulled him out onto the balcony. Once there, he began the tirade that had been bubbling up for several hours. He at least had the presence of mind to keep his voice at a decibel level that would prevent any human from hearing them.

"Whose bright idea was this?" the irate vampire began.

"Mine," Edward answered evenly.

"How _dare_ you," Harry spat darkly. "I specifically told you and every other member of this family that I wanted them kept out of this. I wanted them as far away from Voldemort, Dumbledore, and the Volturi as possible."

"Harry-" the older vampire said as he reached out to take his husband in his arms.

"No," the younger vampire snapped as he brought both arms up and out so as to stop Edward's attempt. "You don't get to use your 'Harry, I just did this for you' bit this time. There is a right and wrong here. I am right and you are wrong. And you knew that doing this was wrong because if you thought even for an instant that this was the right thing to do then you wouldn't have hidden it from me. You have put Leah, Jacob, their families, and everyone else in La Push in terrible danger."

The two vampires stood in silence on the balcony for a very long time after that. Edward's face was impassive, but Harry's was contorted into a mask of anger that Edward had not seen on his husband's handsome face before.

"They are your friends," the bronze-haired immortal said after a while. "They deserve to know what is going on with you. You were, after all, the one who promised that you weren't going to cut them out of your life after you were turned."

"The Volturi hate werewolves. I very much doubt that the distinction between the La Push shapeshifters and real werewolves is going to stop them from killing everyone with even a drop of Quileute blood. It was only by sheer luck that they didn't learn of the pack after the battle with Victoria."

"Aro read your mind back in Volterra, so he knows about the shapeshifters already," Edward pointed out.

Harry continued without missing a beat; as if Edward hadn't said anything at all. "And the Ministry . . . We're going to have to get a whole new set of Vows out of the Order. There was nothing in the previous one that will prevent one of them from going off and telling the Minister of Magic himself that there are a bunch of shapeshifters running about the Muggle world. And if they discover that the members of the pack are being routinely spotted by hunters in the Olympic Peninsula . . ."

"Are you pissed off that I told them what was going on or because I didn't consult you first?" Edward asked.

"Both, damnit!" Harry said, his voice rising to the point where his expletive echoed off the side of the hotel. The newborn turned away from his husband and looked out at the city.

"Gee, keeping Jacob and Leah in the dark in order to protect them. That sounds like a crackerjack idea. Kind of like me leaving you crying in the woods because I was afraid of you being hurt by one of the vampires you were hanging around."

Harry continued to silently stare out at the city for several seconds. "That's low."

"But it's an accurate comparison," Edward said as he moved next to his husband and placed an arm around his shoulder.

The younger vampire didn't lean into the touch the way he normally did. That fact, coupled with Harry's dark thoughts, told Edward that he had a long way to go before he managed to smooth things over this time. As strong as the argument for telling Jacob and Leah what was gong on might be, he still broke the cardinal rule of his relationship with Harry: no secrets.

**A/N:** A distinction is made in "Breaking Dawn" between shapeshifters like Jacob and Leah and actual werewolves who only transform on the night of the full moon. Edward refers to the werewolves in Europe as the "Children of the Moon" while the members of the La Push, despite calling themselves 'werewolves,' are shapeshifters who just happen to turn into wolves. The Volturi, most notably Caius, have a strong hatred for real werewolves and have hunted them for some time.


	60. Chapter 60

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 60: Marriage Counseling and Scheming**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Fifty-Nine – Marriage Counseling and Scheming**

Harry left the hotel by himself. Although he'd greatly enjoyed the time he'd spent with Jacob and Leah over the past couple of days, things amongst the members of the Cullen family were becoming too tense for his liking. He was barely speaking to Edward; Emmett and Rosalie had had a rather dramatic row in the living room when Emmett took his youngest brother's side in the argument; and Esme and Alice were becoming rather tiresome in their efforts to forcibly patch things up between the newlyweds in recompense for their hands in the entire fiasco.

The newborn had made no bones about his desire to go to his godfather's house alone. Despite his husband's repeated requests to allow him to come along, Harry had stood his ground and sidelined Edward for the evening. Of course, he knew that Edward was following him and would wait outside of 12 Grimmauld Place throughout Harry's evening there in order to make sure the younger vampire was alright.

When Harry arrived at the terrace house, he moved swiftly to the door and knocked. Not having a wand, he had no means of unlocking the door by himself. It took several minutes and two additional knocks, but Harry's godfather soon opened the door for him.

"Harry," the animagus greeted warmly as he pulled his godson into the house. "Dumbledore said that you'd be by one of these nights, but he didn't say when exactly."

"Yeah, we parted in a hurry last time we saw each other, so we weren't able to schedule another meeting." The vampire didn't go into details about how he'd fled because of his singer.

"Do you need Dumbledore? I can floo him in an instant."

"No, thanks though. I'm actually here to see you. Just you," Harry replied.

Sirius's face split into a grin that seemed to cause the years that he'd aged prematurely in Azkaban to melt off. "That's great! I have the house to myself for the moment, so there's no worry about someone trying to horn in on our fun."

Harry followed his godfather's lead up the stairs to the drawing room on the first floor that Headmaster Dumbledore and Severus Snape had met in privately after the Order meeting that Harry and his new family had attended. The drawing room was fairly small, but nicely furnished with several comfy-looking chairs and a table with an empty vase on it. The most striking aspect of the room, however, was a family tree tapestry on the wall. The vampire's eyes immediately caught sight of a very important name on the tapestry: Bellatrix Black.

The newborn vampire walked over to the tapestry and examined it more closely. The large family tree included dates of births and deaths, little non-moving portraits of the wizards and witches that were related to the Black line by blood, and small annotations beneath each name indicating the family member's marital status. The daughter of Cygnus and Druella Black, Bellatrix was married to Rodolphus Lestrange. She was a dark-haired witch with thin lips and dark, heavily lidded eyes. Something about her eyes struck Harry as being very familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on why.

"I see you've found my cousin's place on the tree. If you look over two places, you'll see Narcissa and, just below her name, you'll find your old enemy, Draco Malfoy."

Harry's followed Sirius's directions and found the sneering image of Draco Malfoy just below the image of his mother. Narcissa was a blond woman who, while fairly pleasant-looking, had an expression on her face that convinced the vampire that she'd smelled something most unpleasant when the portrait was made. It was the same impression he had had of her when he saw her before his fourth year of Hogwarts, he recalled.

Although he looked for several moments, the immortal was unable to find any trace of Sirius on the tapestry. He was able to find Regulus, but there were no name next to it. There was, however, a blackened space to one side and an empty space to the other side. "Where are you?"

"Right here," Sirius said as he motioned to the charred space next to Regulus A. Black. "My mother blasted me off of the damn thing because I'm a 'blood traitor.' She did the same thing for Tonks's mother, Andromeda. She'd be that burned spot between Bellatrix and Narcissa."

Sirius and his godson stood in awkward silence for a few moments. "So . . . why are you flying solo tonight?"

"I just felt like coming by myself," Harry replied evenly.

"The honeymoon's over then, is it?"

The vampire turned to face his godfather. "What do you mean by that?"

"Every couple has their first big fight a couple months into the marriage," the wizard responded.

"Edward and I have had our share of spats before now."

"Yeah, but I'd be willing to bet a pretty large sack of galleons that this is your first major one. Want to talk about it?" Sirius offered as he seated himself on one of the comfortable chairs.

"Not to be cruel, Sirius, but what do you know about the problems between married people?"

"Well, I may not have any experience with being married myself, but I shared a few bottles of firewhisky with your father after his first major fight with Lily after they got married."

The vampire walked over to the chair across from Sirius's and sat himself down. "What did they fight about?"

"You, actually."

"Me?" Harry asked in surprise. "How could they have possibly been fighting about me? They married, like, two years before I was born."

"And that was what they were fighting about. Lily wanted to wait a few years before having children in the hope that things would calm down, but James, who'd lost his parents not long after the wedding, wanted to have a child to carry on the family name as soon as possible."

Harry felt a minor pang of sadness at that knowledge. He was a gay vampire. Even if male vampires could procreate, he had no interest in having sexual intercourse with a woman. And as for an adopted child carrying on the Potter name, he'd already decided that any such child would be a Cullen like most of the rest of the family. Although he knew Edward would be willing to take the Potter name, he much preferred the idea of his son or daughter having a large family of people with the same last name. Having grown up as the only Potter in a house full of Dursleys, he wanted any child of his to have parents, uncles, aunts, and grandparents around with the same last name. Just like Harry dreamed of when he was little.

"So they argued about when to have a child?"

"Oh, yes. It was quite spectacular, actually. Lily was a real genius at charms. James had to transform into his animagus form to get away from her. It was hilarious to watch her tossing spells and yelling at a stag that was trying desperately to flee from the house," Sirius said with a laugh.

"So how did they settle the fight?"

"The compromised. They agreed to . . . um, well . . . be _intimate_ with one another but to not purposefully try to have a baby. They decided to just let nature take its course. And, just under two years after the argument, you were born. Not quite as soon as James wanted, but not as late as Lily wanted."

Harry smiled at the story before sighing heavily. "I'm afraid that the compromise trick won't work with my current problem. Edward went behind my back and did something that he knew I'm strongly opposed to."

"What did he do?" Sirius asked in a tone that promised retribution against the bronze-haired vampire if he'd done anything that hurt Harry.

Harry crafted his response very carefully so as not to reveal anything important about Jacob and Leah. "There are a couple other members of our family, sort of like cousins, who didn't know what was going on over here. Edward decided to tell them everything and to fly them over here to help out."

"So he called in reinforcements? I don't see how that's such a terrible thing, Harry."

"I wanted to keep them out of this. This whole thing is dangerous. The Ministry; Voldemort; hell, even a few members of the Order. Just in case things go sour, I didn't want anyone else getting pulled into the line of fire.

"I understand Edward's point-of-view in this thing. He thinks that it was wrong of me to try and keep the other members of the family out of this. That they should have been given the choice in whether to take part in this mess or not. But he knew that I was opposed to getting them involved and, rather than trying to convince me to change my mind, he just went behind my back."

Sirius waited patiently as Harry expressed his frustration at what Edward had done and then offered his godson the best advice he could. "So, you're pissed off at him. Does he know that you're pissed off?"

"Yes."

"Does he know _why_ you're pissed off?"

"Yes," Harry answered again.

"Is being pissed off going to gain you anything that you haven't already gotten?"

"No," Harry muttered.

"Then I think you know what to do."

The vampire regarded his godfather for a long moment. "Who the hell are you? The Sirius I know is brash and foolhardy, not logical and wise. You should be telling me to get back at him in some horrible yet hilarious manner."

"Well, I'm really just repeating something I heard Remus say to Lily once," Sirius answered sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Did it really make me sound wise?"

Harry burst into laughter at Sirius's admission. That was certainly more like the Sirius Black he knew.

"Oh, I guess I'll forgive Edward later then."

"You could still have a little fun letting him dangle a bit," Sirius suggested playfully. "That's what Lily always did with your father. She yelled a bit, threw some hexes, spent a day or two simmering, made him do chores or something that he didn't want to do, and then forgave him once she was sure he'd learned his lesson," the animagus said. "Y'know, I was really worried when I first saw you after you became a, well a . . ."

"Vampire," Harry supplied helpfully.

"Yes, er, a vampire. You always had James's hair, Lily's eyes, and that scar that was all your own. And now you don't have any of that. I was afraid that you weren't going to be the same person at all. But you really seem like you've grown up into your mother's son. Seeing you acting like her really makes me happy."

"You're not upset that I'm not more like my father?"

"Oh, you were exactly like your father when I first met you. Well, maybe not exactly. He hexed a lot more Hufflepuffs than you did. Anyway, it's only fair that you went from acting like one parent to acting like the other."

Harry turned back to the family tree and looked at the pictures of Bellatrix, Narcissa, and Draco. When he began to speak again, his voice was much more somber. "There's something I need your help with, Sirius. Something that you can't tell anyone about."

Sirius leaned forward in his chair. "Hey, you tell me something in confidence, then no one's gonna find out about it."

"Voldemort has left something very important in Bellatrix Lestrange's keeping. She's hidden it in her vault," Harry began.

"How do you know what is in her vault?" Sirius asked in surprise.

"One of my family members has an . . . ability. The ability to read minds."

"And this relative of yours actually heard what my cousin thought?"

"Yes."

"That shouldn't be possible. But if she's unhinged enough . . ." the animagus muttered to himself.

"Huh?"

"Bellatrix practices occlumency. It's a form of magic that protects your thought from mindreaders and the like. I've even heard that it can be used to protect against veritaserum. There is a companion magic called legilimency that she practices as well and it involves reading minds. Under normal circumstances, her mind is unreadable.

"I tried to study occlumency when I was younger, but I didn't have any talent at it. Not like Reggie. I was too hotheaded for it," Sirius explained. "Bellatrix might have lost the ability to use occlumency because she's, well, nutters."

"Nutters?" the vampire asked.

"She was pretty far off the deep end during the first war. She's so devoted to her master that many think she's in love with him. At the end of the first war, she went and tortured Frank and Alice Longbottom to try and find information on what happened to her master. She got caught and tossed into Azkaban. I was able to retain my sanity while in prison because the dementors didn't really bother me when I was in my dog form, but she didn't have that kind of protection. The dementors drove her the little way she had left to go to be totally insane. If your relative could hear what she was thinking, then I'm pretty sure that she's mentally and emotionally unstable enough that she can't use occlumency. At least, not all the time the way Snape does."

The vampire was thinking about Alice and Frank Longbottom. That, he realized, was why Bellatrix's voice and face seemed so familiar to him. When he'd accidentally used Professor Dumbledore's pensieve during his fourth year at Hogwarts, he'd witnessed the trial of Bellatrix Lestrange; Barty Crough, Jr; and two other Death Eaters. Like all of his mortal memories, it was a bit fuzzy. But he remembered Bellatrix's heavy eyelids and her screaming about how her master would rise again.

"So Snape knows this occlumency. I bet the headmaster knows it as well."

"Sure does," Sirius said with a nod of his head. "He's a master at both occlumency and legilimency."

"The headmaster can read minds?" the newborn asked in alarm.

"He can, but if he was using it for anything more than trying to detect a lie or hear your inner monologue, you'd feel it. The really in-depth stuff usually requires a spell, eye contact, or some sort of existing connection with the person you're reading, like having them under the Imperius Curse," Sirius explained before slyly adding, "Not that the guy who secretly has a mindreader in his family really has any place getting all upset that Dumbledore might be able to do it too."

"Yeah, I guess that's a little hypocritical. It's just that the headmaster will never approve of what I want to do even though I think it may be the only way to get what I need from that vault," Harry replied.

"What is it that she has that you need so badly?"

"A magical artifact that Voldemort has given to her for safekeeping."

"Would this be anything like that locket?"

"You know about that?" the newborn asked in surprise.

Sirius smiled, "Dumbledore asked both me and Fletcher about it. I have no idea why he trusted Fletcher not to mention it to anyone."

Harry hesitated a moment. "Yes, it's like the locket that Regulus died in order to get away from Voldemort. Bellatrix has a similar item in her vault and it must be destroyed at all costs."

"I don't know what to tell you. She's not going to let you into her vault, breaking in to Gringotts is out of the question, and the only other way to get into the vault . . ." Sirius trailed off as he figured out what Harry was considering. "You're going to kill her."

"Yes, I am. I'm going to kill her and then bargain Draco Malfoy's safety to get his mother to get us the item and to release Snape from the Vow."

The pair sat in silence for over a minute as Sirius thought the idea over. Harry was afraid several times that his godfather was going to object. The response he got, therefore, surprised him.

"Rodolphus will inherit form Bellatrix, so we'll need to get rid of him first if we want to make sure Narcissa can get into the vault."


	61. Chapter 61

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 61: Narcissa**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Sixty – Narcissa**

It was past two in the morning when Harry left 12 Grimmauld Place. After hours of planning with his godfather, they'd finally formulated a plan on how to approach Narcissa Malfoy about the bargain. The vampire wasn't terribly confident in the plan, but he trusted his godfather more than he trusted any other wizard and so was willing to give it a shot.

As the newborn walked down the darkened streets of London, he could both smell and hear his husband following him protectively. Edward was staying out of sight and giving Harry the space the younger vampire had demanded. But, after his conversation with his godfather, Harry no longer desired that space.

"Edward," Harry said as he stopped at a street corner. "You're giving me déjà vu."

"Déjà vu?" the older vampire asked as he emerged from the shadows and took his place next to his husband.

"You've regressed to your stalking days. It's like high school all over again."

Edward chuckled lightly at the comment. "So you're speaking to me at the moment?"

"Yes. Sirius, surprisingly, gave me a bit of good advice. Or rather, he repeated a bit of good advice that he'd overheard Remus giving my mother almost two decades ago. He pointed out that being angry at you wasn't going to get me anywhere; what's done is done," the darker-haired immortal said as he turned to look at his husband. "As long as you get that you can't go behind my back and do anything like this again, then we're cool."

"Cool?" Edward said with his typical crooked smile.

"You know what I mean."

"Of course. I promise that I will never go behind your back like that again. Trust me, the last few days have been almost as awful as those first few weeks back in Forks. I don't want to jeopardize our relationship like this again."

"Oh, I don't think that our relationship was ever in real jeopardy," the newborn said thoughtfully. "Though you should know that if you ever try something like this a second time, you better learn to enjoy celibacy because you will never see me naked again," Harry said as he started walking back to the hotel once more.

The older vampire was left dumbfounded on the street corner for a moment before rushing forward to join his mate. "So," he said, drawing the 'o' sound out for several seconds longer than necessary, "was our marriage the only thing you discussed with Sirius?"

"No. We came up with a plan. How would you fancy a visit to the Leaky Cauldron the night after next?" Harry asked as he jingled a small bag of coins he'd received from Sirius Black.

Harry filled his friends and family in on the plan he'd formulated with his godfather. Although most of the vampires were skeptical about the likelihood of success, the shapeshifters seemed to be a little enthusiastic about it. The group had a minor argument about who should attend the meeting with Narcissa Malfoy, but the needs for stealth and security were balanced out by assigning Harry, Edward, Jasper, Jacob, and Leah to the task of going to the pub.

Despite the minor argument, things in the hotel suite were much less tense than they had been in the previous few days. With Edward and Harry back to normal, Alice and Esme were able to calm down and Emmett and Rosalie were able to patch things up—even if 'patch things up' meant that Emmett had to apologize to his wife for their argument even though he felt he was totally in the right.

On the second night, Harry led his husband, brother, and two shapeshifter friends to the broken-down shop front between a bookshop and a record store that hid the Leaky Cauldron from Muggles. Edward and Jasper entered the pub with Harry while Leah and Jacob took up positions across the street in order to watch for trouble.

Once inside the Leaky Cauldron, the three vampires quickly put on the cloaks that they had carried with them and took a corner table. Although Sirius had assured his godson that vampires were not uncommon in places like the Leaky Cauldron and it was highly unlikely that anyone would recognize Harry after his transformation, there was no need to risk trouble. It was better that everyone else in the dingy little dive thought they were just three wizards out for a drink.

Harry left the table briefly and bought three drinks from the barkeep with some of the galleons that Sirius had given him. The vampire was a little surprised to find that the barkeep was not Tom as he'd expected, but a much older wizard with a long, white beard. The vampire took the drinks, sat back down at the table, and, together with his husband and brother, waited. None of the trio drank their beverages, but their presence helped the illusion of the three vampires being mortals.

All three vampires could smell when Sirius arrived by floo about twenty minutes later. Shrouded in a dark cloak, the animagus went up to the barkeep and paid for the use of a private parlor. Edward was careful to listen to the thoughts of all of the wizards and witches in the pub in order to ensure that no one suspected who Sirius really was.

Not long after Sirius walked up to the second floor of the pub to the private parlor, a blond witch dressed in tailored green robes arrived. Harry recognized the witch as Narcissa Malfoy; she matched her small portrait from the Black family tree tapestry and the fuzzy memories he had from the summer before is fourth year perfectly.

So far, the plan was working. Sirius had sent Narcissa a letter the day before asking her to meet him at the Leaky Cauldron at eight o'clock. He emphasized the point that he had a way to protect her son from the Dark Lord. While Jacob and Leah watched the front of the pub, Edward monitored the patrons' thoughts, and Jasper monitored the patrons' emotions and watched the floo and the entrance to Diagon Alley. Harry waited until the witch went up the stairs and then followed her.

Harry entered the dark parlor to find Sirius sitting at a table quietly greeting Narcissa. As soon as he entered the room, the witch spun around and pointed her wand at him.

"What trickery is this?" she demanded in a calm tone. "I thought we were to meet alone, dear cousin."

"I apologize, Cissy, but this is his show," Sirius replied.

"Who are you?" the witch demanded.

Using his enhanced vampire speed and strength, Harry moved quickly to the witch's side and yanked the wand from her hand before she could react. "My name isn't important at the moment, Narcissa; we'll get to it in a minute. You should trust that if I wanted to hurt you, I would have already."

The witch didn't visibly react to Harry's actions, but he could hear her heart begin to race.

"What do you want?"

"I have a deal to propose to you, Narcissa," the vampire replied as he returned her wand to her.

Narcissa took her wand and then walked several steps away from the immortal. The witch regarded the cloaked figure critically. "I'm listening. But you should know that I will never agree to a bargain with an unknown party."

"Of course," Harry said. "I said that we'd get to my name later, and we will. Just not until after I've determined whether or not it's worth revealing to you.

"Your sister has something in her vault that I want. I intend to kill her husband and then her so that you inherit her vault and everything in it. Once all that is your sister's becomes yours, you will give me the item that I want from the vault and, to avoid anyone becoming suspicious of the item's disappearance, you will replace it with a fake. Also, once your sister is dead, you'll forswear the Unbreakable Vow with Severus Snape. In return, you will gain your sister's wealth and Sirius and I will ensure your son's safety. And your safety as well, if you wish it."

"Are you insane?" the witch asked, her cold façade finally crumbling. Her voice was one of disbelief. "You actually expect me to do nothing as you kill my sister?"

"It's your sister or your son," Harry countered. "His master has assigned him a suicide mission; he can't possibly succeed. Even if Snape completes the task for him, your son will be given a new suicide mission to punish your family for your late husband's failure. Draco must run and hide. If Voldemort wins this war, then Draco will have to hide forever. If Voldemort loses, then your son will only have to hide until the war is over. But make no mistake, your son has no choice but to hide if he wishes to survive."

The witch's face became a mask of indecision. "Assuming that I can convince Draco to give up his mission, how can you protect him?"

"We have a house protected by the Fidelius Charm. Draco may hide there, protected by the Order of the Phoenix and my not inconsequential abilities."

"The Fidelius Charm?" Narcissa asked in an almost reverent way.

The charm was very powerful and very complex. To Harry's knowledge, 12 Grimmauld Place was the only residence in Britain currently protected by the Fidelius Charm. According to Sirius, even Malfoy Manor didn't have that particular protection.

The blond witch began to pace around the room. "Why do want me to release Severus Snape from the Vow?"

"Because he, unlike your son, stands a chance at finishing Dumbledore off. And I simply can't allow the old man to die just yet. He's too useful."

"I suppose your knowledge of the Vow confirms that Snape is indeed a spy like my sister suspects?" Lady Malfoy questioned as she looked between the cloaked figure and Sirius.

"He isn't as good at Occlumency as he thinks he is," Harry lied. Narcissa clearly didn't believe the lie, but she let it pass.

The blond woman continued to pace while pursing and unpursing her lips. "There isn't really much of a choice, now is there? My son or my sister; I will always pick my son."

"Then we have a deal?" Harry asked.

"Once I'm suitably satisfied that you will be able to protect _both_ me and my son."

"Of course, Cissy," Sirius assured from his seat. "Like we said, we've got the perfect house."

"Your mother's house, I assume?"

"Of course. The old bat was so paranoid that she put every protection imaginable on it."

"And it will be private?"

"As private as can be. I stay there for obvious reasons. And Dumbledore's people meet there," the animagus said.

"Unacceptable," Narcissa said as he crossed her arms. Her wand was clutched tightly in her right hand and moved up and down as she played with it nervously. "I can't trust that they won't hurt my son in an attempt to get information on the Dark Lord from him."

"They're already in on the Secret, Cissy," the wizard said in a disgruntled voice. After a few moments under his cousin's gaze, he backed down. "If this is a deal breaker for you, I can have the other protections keep them out, I guess."

"Good. Then there are just two other details. First, I'll need to know the identity of your companion over there," she said turning back at Harry. "And second, I'll need an Unbreakable Vow that you'll to protect my son."

Sirius looked over at Harry expectantly.

"We will, of course, agree to the first of your demands. But the second one . . ." the vampire said.

"Is non-negotiable," Narcissa finished. "If I'm going to release Snape from a Vow that is intended to protect my son, then I demand a new one in return."

"I'll make the Vow," Sirius said. "I'll promise to provide your son with refuge in my home, to protect him from Dumbledore's people, and to protect him from his master as best I can. But only after you release that great greasy git from his Vow to you."

Narcissa considered the offer. She looked back at Harry appraisingly for a moment. It was clear that she'd prefer the Vow be made by the person she was striking the bargain with.

"That's our final offer, Narcissa. Agree to this or watch your son die," Sirius said darkly.

Harry knew it was an idle threat, but the witch didn't.

"You forget that you need Dumbledore alive. You won't risk Severus killing the old man to save himself," she pointed out.

"If we're prepared to kill your sister and her husband, what makes you think we aren't prepared to go after Snape? We're only offering this bargain to you because it kills two birds with one stone," Harry replied.

The witch considered the offer for another minute before answering. "It's a deal," she said finally. "Now, stranger, your name."

Harry smirked at the way the prim and proper witch's eyes bulged in an undignified manner as he revealed himself. "Harry Potter."


	62. Chapter 62

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 62: Gambling**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Sixty-One – Gambling**

After the momentary shock wore off, Narcissa Malfoy's eyes narrowed as she examined ever little detail of the vampire's face. Of course she knew that the creature before her was a vampire; what student of the Dark Arts didn't know all of the telltale signs of a vampire? No, the real question on her mind was whether this vampire really was Harry Potter.

The eyes were different. Harry Potter was well known for having green eyes like his Muggleborn mother. This creature had redish-yellow eyes, which was odd in itself. Shouldn't a vampire have either red or black eyes?

The vampire's hair was different from Harry Potter's as well. When she'd seen the Potter boy at the Quidditch World Cup, he'd had very dark, messy hair. This vampire's hair was several shades lighter and didn't even have a minor wave to it.

And, perhaps most importantly, there was no scar. Every witch and wizard in the world knew that Harry James Potter had a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead from when the Dark Lord attempted to kill him.

"You," the aristocratic witch began, "are most certainly not Harry Potter."

The vampire smirked at her. It was true, to a certain extent. He was Harry Cullen now. "Oh, I assure you Mrs. Malfoy, I am."

The witch continued to scrutinize the immortal for a moment before turning to her cousin. "Is this some sort of joke?"

"Nope. My godson ran off and joined a coven of vampires. Willingly, if you can believe that."

"Madness," Narcissa said. "This is pure and utter madness. You expect me to trust the safety of my son to someone that would see him as a meal?"

"Harry here has a particular love of bears, so I'm betting Draco wouldn't be much more than an appetizer to him," Sirius joked dryly.

"Sirius," Harry admonished. "Actually, Mrs. Malfoy, I don't feed from people. That's why my eyes aren't totally red like most vampires. Feeding from animals gives a vampire's eyes a more amber color."

"So the little boy that the Dark Lord is all worried about is already dead."

"The little boy that the Dark Lord is all worried about grew up and now can punch his hand through his enemy's chest like it was made out of paper," Harry replied. "I'm stronger and faster than any wizard and there's a whole slew of spells that don't work on me for the simple fact that I'm not human anymore. Trust me when I tell you that I'm a more formidable opponent now than I ever was before I became a vampire."

The witch continued to analyze the vampire for some time before saying anything else. "Alright then. We have a deal. You kill Rodolphus and Bellatrix, I inherit everything, and then I give you the object from the vault. In return, I keep everything else in my sister's estate and you and Sirius ensure the continued well-being of both my son and myself. After Draco and I are safely hidden away in the House of Black, I will relinquish my hold on Severus Snape in return for an Unbreakable Vow from my cousin over there regarding the safety of my family. Is that all?"

"Don't forget that you'll be replacing the real item in the vault with a fake that we're going to provide you with," Harry added. "And it's your responsibility to make sure your son agrees to all of this. And if he runs off and tells Voldemort about me, you can be sure that I'll break my 'no eating humans rule.'"

"Yes, yes. Is that all?" she repeated her question as she tapped her foot impatiently. The threat sent indirectly towards her son didn't seem to phase her one bit.

"No," Harry replied in a very calm, patient tone. "We need to know where your sister and her husband are hiding out."

"When they aren't out performing tasks for the Dark Lord, they are at Malfoy Manor. I can ensure their presence, and only their presence, at my home on an evening of your choice. Now, is _that_ all?"

"Yes, that's all," Sirius confirmed.

"Good. Then I had best be going before anyone discovers me here conspiring with my supposed enemies." The witch gave a final nod to both Harry and Sirius and then swept from the room.

The godson and godfather remained in the room for a few moments after the witch left. They stood in silence waiting for Edward to join them. Exactly ten minutes after Narcissa Malfoy left, the bronze-haired vampire joined them upstairs. The delay was to ensure that the witch didn't alert anyone about Sirius's presence; if she had, then the advanced warning that Edward would be able to provide would be quite valuable.

"That went better than I expected," Edward confessed when he walked into the room.

"You were able to hear all of our thoughts then?" Harry questioned his husband.

"No," the older vampire confessed. "But I could read both of you just fine, so I got the whole thing."

"I guess that means that Narcissa knows Occlumency as well."

"It makes a certain amount of sense, if you think about it," Sirius said as he rose from his chair and began to put his cloak back on. "Someone had to teach Draco. There is a good chance that it was Narcissa that taught him. Or else Bellatrix taught him and Narcissa before the little snipe returned to school."

"But I thought Bellatrix was too unstable for Occlumency," the darker-haired vampire said.

"She _might_ be too unstable to be considered a master and use it all the time like Snape and Dumbledore," the animagus corrected.

"Besides, love, you know what the say: those who can't do, teach," Edward said with a smirk.

"I never bought into that saying, actually," Harry replied. "McGonagall can both do and teach. Same for Flitwick."

"Sadly, Snape can do, but he sure as hell can't teach," Sirius said with a bellowing laugh.

"Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Narcissa has agreed to the deal, so what's next?" Harry asked.

"I guess the next step is set everything up. Get Dumbledore to write the location of the House of Black onto a piece of paper so that the Secret can be revealed to Narcissa and Draco, get the other protections ready so that the Order won't be able to enter anymore once those two take up residence there, and make a fake whatever-it-is that's in the vault to hand off to Cissy," Sirius answered.

"And then we set up the date to go and kill Rudolphus and Bellatrix," Edward said. "And then we actually do it."

"Well, it looks like my work is cut out for me," Sirius said as he prepared to leave. "How are we going to get a forgery of this object?"

"If I can draw a picture of it, can you transfigure something into it?" his godson asked.

"I should be able to. As long as it isn't anything too difficult, like a scale model of Hogwarts."

"A what?"

"You've never heard about that, Harry? Old McGonagall once transfigured a bunch of junk into a really detailed scale model of the castle, complete with Filch and his damn cat in the hallways. It was really brilliant. I think she was trying to prove she was as able a transfiguration professor as Dumbledore was."

"That's, uh, interesting. But we won't need anything that extravagant or detailed."

"Whew," Sirius said as he wiped the back of his sleeve and hand across his brow to wipe away some imaginary sweat. "That's a relief."

"Not that I don't like all of this warm interaction between you two," Edward interrupted, "but I really think that it would be best if we got Sirius somewhere a little less public."

"Aye, aye, cap'n," the animagus said with an overly dramatic salute to the vampire.

The three vampires, two shapeshifters, and one mortal wizard made their way to 12 Grimmauld Place. Although Jacob and Leah were able to tag along, they couldn't see the actual house because they hadn't been let in on the Secret. To them, it just seemed like the houses on the street were oddly numbered and that Sirius just disappeared as he approached the space between numbers 11 and 13.

"Magic is so cool," Jacob said as the animagus disappeared.

"Too bad he didn't turn into a dog, you would have gotten a real kick out of that," Harry said.

"What did you tell him about us, by the way?" Leah asked.

"I just told him that you're a couple members of my extended family. He didn't ask any questions. I think that he has figured it out, though," Harry answered.

"And why would he be able to figure it out?" the female shapeshifter inquired.

"I mentioned to Ron and Hermione that I ended up in a town full of vampires and shapeshifters. I'm pretty sure they repeated it to Sirius," the youngest of the three vampires replied.

"They did," Edward confirmed.

Not long after that, the group was back in the comfort of the hotel. After a recap of the evening's events—something that Harry was finding himself doing far too frequently as of late—the large group broke into two smaller groups to entertain themselves for the rest of the evening in the suite that Alice, Jasper, Carlisle, and Esme shared.

Rosalie, Jasper, Edward, Esme, and Carlisle were one group and they sat around the television watching various news programs and documentaries until the wee hours of the morning. Emmett, Harry, Alice, Jacob, and Leah were the other group. Or, as they preferred to think of themselves, the 'Fun Group.' They spent the evening playing poker, telling embarrassing stories about one another, and making lewd jokes.

"So," Jacob began as she shuffled the deck of cards, "have any of you vamps heard about Leah's attempts to teach Harry to drive?"

"Oh no, not this story," the vampire in question said as he buried his face in his hands.

"C'mon, it's a great story," Jacob argued.

"Harry trying to drive?" Alice asked with a giggle. "That's bound to have been priceless. He's refused every attempt Edward has made to try and teach him. Except one, and it didn't end very well."

"I can understand that," Leah muttered. "Pain in the ass can't steer worth a damn."

"Yeah, Harry had a little bit of a problem with steering. And accelerating. And, well, just about everything else," the alpha laughed as he began to deal the cards.

"Hey, I wasn't bad at everything," the youngest vampire protested.

"That's true," Leah said as she looked over at Emmett. "He was able to operate the radio without causing any damage."

"Enough with the suspense already, what happened?" Emmett asked.

Jacob started to speak but Harry reached out and covered his friend's mouth. "It really isn't that great of the story. I just had a little trouble staying on the road is all."

"'A little trouble?'" Leah quoted mockingly as she arranged the cards in her hand. "You tried to accelerate in the middle of a curve on a gravel road. The truck slid, hit a ditch, went airborne, broke a fence post, and then hit a cow."

All of the vampires throughout the room—both those playing the poker game and those watching television—broke into riotous laughter at Leah's revelation.

"I didn't hit a cow," Harry argued. "I just sort of winged it a little. And I paid to repair all of the damage."

"You winged a cow?" Alice asked in between bouts of giggling.

"You want to talk about something funny, how about we talk about how Jacob spent a week looking through magazines at the drug store in the hopes that he'd imprint on a supermodel?" the vampire tried to change the subject.

"Oh yeah, what about when Leah's mom bought one of those whistles that makes high pitched sounds that only dogs can hear? She spent three days trying to find a way to steal the damn thing because her mom invariably used it whenever Leah was in her wolf form," Jacob Black said as he too tried to shift the focus of the conversation.

The poker game continued in a similar fashion for several hours before Jacob and Leah slumped to the two different bedrooms in the suite to get some rest. As Emmett and Alice went to the television to join their spouses, Harry collected the playing cards and then began to think very intently about how much he wanted Edward to follow him to the other hotel suite.

By the time Edward was able to excuse himself from the rest of the family to join his husband, Harry had already moved the small writing table from the main room into their bedroom along with a set of chairs.

"What's this?" Edward asked as he moved to sit across from his mate at the table.

"Poker," Harry replied innocently. "Strip poker, to be precise."

The bronze-haired immortal smirked at his husband. "I like my odds of winning."

"Feeling lucky, are you?" the younger vampire asked. "Or do you feel like you're going to get lucky?"

"Both," Edward replied. "Because in this kind of game, don't I win even if I lose?"


	63. Chapter 63

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 63: News from the Ministry**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Sixty-Two – News from the Ministry**

Harry and Edward were sitting at the end of the dining room table in 12 Grimmauld Place. The younger vampire had been visiting his godfather earlier in the day when Headmaster Dumbledore flooed the animagus to inform him that a meeting would be held that evening at eight o'clock. It was odd to hold a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix after only two days had passed since the last meeting, but the older wizard had said that a new member of the Order would be attending.

This presented Harry and his godfather with a good opportunity to obtain a piece of parchment on which the headmaster had written the Fidelius Charm's Secret. They couldn't just ask the headmaster for his help; if he discovered that they intended to kill Bellatrix Lestrange, he'd never allow them to obtain what they needed. By bringing someone else in on the Secret, the headmaster was creating a situation where they might be able to steal what they needed.

Sirius volunteered to contact the various members of the Order of the Phoenix on the headmaster's behalf. When he informed the Order members of the meeting, he told them that it would start at half past eight. His intention was to make sure that as few people as possible were present so that he would have a better chance at stealing the little slip of parchment that the old man tended to use when bringing new Order members in on the Secret. Although it might raise the headmaster's suspicions when the old wizard uncovers the animagus's blunder, that possibility was preferable to trying to nick the parchment with a room full of over a dozen wizards and witches waiting for the meeting to begin.

"So who's this new Order member?" Edward asked the animagus when he entered the room.

"I'm not sure. Dumbledore didn't say," Sirius replied. "He sounded rushed, though. Whoever this new member is, he's got something important to say. I'm betting he finally got old Thicknesse from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to join."

Harry propped his head up on his hand. Such actions weren't really necessary, but he'd found that such human gestures put mortals at ease. "Well, whoever it is, I hope they don't have a thing against vampires. I'm sick of dealing with Snape and Charlie commenting on me and my family; I certainly don't want another bigot in the group."

The trio continued to make small talk until they heard the sound of the locks on the front door being magically opened a few minutes before eight. A few seconds later, two distinctly different sets of footsteps could be heard. One set was the light, almost frail sound of the headmaster doddering along. The other set was much heavier.

"Right this way, Mr. McLaggen," the headmaster said.

Harry was surprised to see Cormac McLaggen round the corner and confidently stride into the dining room with Professor Dumbledore. McLaggen was a very athletic Gryffindor who was one year above Harry in school. Though they'd only interacted on a handful of occasions, Harry distinctly recalled Cormac being a braggart; however, his bragging had always been much better natured than that of other students, such as Draco Malfoy and Roger Davies.

The wiry-haired young man was not surprised to see Sirius Black at all, but did show a bit of shock at the two vampires at the end of the dining room table. "Harry Potter," he said in surprise. "Dumbledore's told me that there would be some people here that I knew, but I never guessed one of them would be you. Much less that you'd have become a vampire since the last time I saw you. You don't look a thing like the scrawny first year that got sorted into the greatest of the four houses all those years ago."

The young vampire had no idea if he'd just been complimented or insulted, but opted to take the statement as the former. "You look like you're doing well, Cormac." He also managed to hide his surprise that Cormac McLaggen, whom he'd had very little to do with in his Hogwarts days, actually recognized him post-transformation without having to be told who he was.

Headmaster Dumbledore moved around McLaggen and tossed a folded piece of parchment into the fire. All three of the conspirators were relieved when they realized that he had not broken protocol a second time by speaking the Secret to Cormac, as the old wizard had done when he let Harry and his family in on the Secret. As soon as it slipped from his fingers, Harry called out to him.

"Headmaster," Harry began, "I'm afraid that the rest of my family is unable to attend this evening."

The Head of Hogwarts turned around and faced his former pupil. "That is a shame, my boy. I do hope everything is alright."

"Everything is fine," the immortal replied. He kept his eyes trained on the wizard's face, but carefully avoided making eye contact. At the same time, he watched Sirius from the corner of his eye. "They're just out hunting is all."

The animagus had been positioned by the fireplace since before the headmaster and the new Order member arrived. He seemingly kept his attention on Harry, but secretly used his left foot to slip the piece of parchment out of the dwindling fire and into onto the hearth. He simultaneously dropped a piece of parchment he'd hidden behind his back into the fire and allowed it to burn up. After a few seconds, Sirius was confident that the headmaster hadn't seen his actions and so began sliding the parchment so that it was hidden under his shoe as he stood next the fireplace in the spot in which Severus Snape usually stood at meetings.

Once the piece of parchment had been successfully removed from danger and hidden, Sirius began playing his part of the charade. "Not that I don't mind having you here, Albus, but why are you so early?"

"Early?"

"Yes. You told me the meeting wasn't going to start until half past eight."

Dumbledore's silver eyebrows furrowed in momentary confusion. "I believe you misheard me, Sirius. I said eight o'clock."

Sirius flushed in embarassment—an excellent bit of acting on his part—and began to stammer apologies to the head of the Order of the Phoenix. "I'm sorry, Albus. I told everyone what I thought I heard."

"Not a problem, Sirius. As long as they are here eventually, that is the important thing."

After his exchange with the headmaster was completed, Sirius bent over and tied his shoe. As he did so, he carefully removed the scrap of parchment from under his foot and tucked it in his shoe. Once finished, he stood back upright and interrupted the awkward small talk that was going on between Harry and Cromac in order to offer the latter a Butterbeer.

McLaggen gladly accepted the offer and Sirius left the room calling for his House Elf, Kreacher. Harry knew that once Sirius was out of the room, he would remove the parchment and find some place in the house to stash it in order to avoid it being see under or in his shoe by Mad-Eye Moody during the meeting.

Harry was quite relieved that he didn't have to make small talk with Cormac McLaggen for too long. After the older teen gave a minute-by-minute recap of a Quidditch game from the previous year, Professors McGonagall and Snape, Ron, Hermione, and Mad-Eye Moody all arrived. They had all been invited by the headmaster rather than Sirius and so knew that the correct time of the meeting was eight o'clock. The dark-haired vampire was quite happy to have others suffer through McLaggen's tedious recount of all of his athletic accomplishments and the supposedly important things he was doing at the Ministry of Magic.

Every once in a while, Edward would shoot Harry a disgruntled look. The younger vampire was quite curious as to why his mate was sending him such glances, but he didn't ask in front of the others because, though the vampires suspected that the headmaster was aware of Edward's ability to read thoughts, they had no proof that knowledge of Edward's talent had spread to any wizard or witch other than Sirius.

The remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix arrived over the next half hour. There were several more members attending this meeting than any of the previous ones that Harry had attended and that led him to believe he was finally meeting the last members of the Order that he hadn't already met. The former Boy-Who-Lived was introduced to a pretty witch named Hestia Jones, a wizard as old as Dumbledore named Elphias Doge, and the infamous and much maligned Mundungus Fletcher. Arthur, Molly, Bill, Fleur, and Charlie arrived as one big group a few minutes before Tonks, Lupin, and Shacklebolt arrived.

To the chagrin of Harry, Edward, and Sirius, Cormac sat himself down next to the younger vampire and continued to talk Quidditch. Harry honestly couldn't believe anyone could ruin the sport for him, but it was happening. The seat that McLaggen took was where Sirius usually sat during these meetings, but he'd lost his chance because he was still out of the room hiding the parchment when Cormac sat down.

"Thank you all for attending on such short notice," the headmaster said in his usual way. "A bit of information has come to light that I believe you should all be informed of immediately. This young man," he said motioning to the newest member of the Order, "is Cormac McLaggen. He works in the Department of Magical Transportation. Mr. McLaggen, if you would please repeat what you told me earlier today."

"Of course," the blond replied with a cocky grin. He was clearly enjoying being the center of attention. "I was talking to Madam Edgecombe this morning and she told me that an entire team of Aurors has been sent to France to investigate the murder of a Muggle."

"What?" Tonks interrupted. "I haven't heard anything about Aurors being shipped off overseas."

"Neither have I," Kingsley added. "But then again, Minister Scrimgeour has been known to do things off the books. If he wanted to keep it quiet, it'd be quiet."

"Yeah," McLaggen said, "that's exactly what I was thinking."

"But why would the Ministry send a group of Aurors overseas in the first place?" Hestia Jones asked as she moved a stray strand of her dark hair away from her face.

"I think it's obvious," Edward said.

"Oh, the _vampire_ is suddenly an expert on the intricacies of the Ministry of Magic, is he now?" Snape sneered from his customary place next to the fireplace.

Harry was about to yell something nasty at his least favorite professor, but was stopped by Edward continuing to speak.

"You don't have to be an expert, Snape," Edward said evenly as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Why would the Ministry of Magic investigate a Muggle's death? The answer is that the Muggle died by or is at least suspected to have died by magical means. Why would a government that is desperately fighting a war send an entire team of its frontline soldiers overseas for an investigation? Answer: when then the investigation is related to that government's enemy. The logical conclusion to the question of why the Ministry would send Aurors on this particular mission is that they suspect that this Muggle was killed by Voldemort or one of his supporters."

"Those," Headmaster Dumbledore said with a soft smile, "are my thoughts exactly. I believe that the Muggle was indeed murdered by Tom or one of his supporters. Severus, has Voldemort been seen by any of his supporters in the past few days? Or has anyone intimated to you that a specific Muggle was being targeted by him?"

"No," the hook-nosed wizard replied. "I've heard nothing about battle strategy beyond some attempts to curry favor with the werewolves and giants, a few miserable attempts to place Ministry employees under the Imperius Curse, and some vague plans for the Muggle Prime Minister. And, as I informed you two nights ago, headmaster, the Dark Lord hasn't been seen by any of his followers except for Nott for weeks."

The old wizard steepled his fingers. "You all, I am sure, understand that it is imperative we discover why Voldemort would go all the way to France to murder a Muggle. Kingsley, Tonks, I would like the two of you to see if you can find out something in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Mr. McLaggen, if at all possible, see if the Minister has revealed anything to your uncle, Tiberius; I understand that they are great friends. And Fleur, I would like for you to contact your family in France. See if they have heard anything about Death Eater activity or Dark Mark sightings. Anything other than the usual, that is. Ask them to report anything, even if it seems inconsequential."

There were general murmurs of agreement as the various wizards and witches accepted their assignments.

"Voldemort has been quiet for far too long. I fear that whatever he is doing abroad, it could prove to be devastating to us if allowed to go unchecked," the headmaster said.

The rest of the meeting was downhill from there. Although Charlie and Snape both made a few disparaging remarks about Harry's vampire family and Edward was in a sour mood all night, nothing much happened. The Order members gave quick updates on what they were working on for Professor Dumbledore, but no one had had much time to make any progress since the last meeting.

Soon enough, Edward and Harry were back in the bedroom of the hotel suite they shared with Emmett and Rosalie.

"That went well," the younger vampire said as he began to change clothes. "Better than I expected. I don't think the headmaster noticed a thing when Sirius swiped the address. His heartbeat didn't change, his eyes didn't divert to the side. I think we got away with it."

"Perhaps," the bronze-haired vampire said. "Or maybe he's letting us get away with it."

"Why would he do that?"

"You're far too trusting when it comes to the man that wanted to hold you prisoner a few months ago," Edward admonished. "Have you considered, even for a moment, that maybe Dumbledore knows exactly what we're doing but is just opting to not interfere with it?"

"Why in the world would he do that?"

"He says that he doesn't condone killing except when absolutely necessary. But maybe the truth is that he just doesn't want to be the one doing the killing. Maybe he has no problem with Bellatrix being killed as long as he can tell himself that it wasn't directly his fault."

Harry paused momentarily in changing his clothes and looked at his husband's reflection in the mirror in front of him. "You're a very cynical guy, you know."

"And you're far too naïve," the older vampire said as he sat down on the bed and began to undress.

"It's not naïveté, Edward. It's optimism. It's seeing the best in people. I'm just choosing to not believe that the headmaster is doing anything underhanded until we have some shred of proof. Thus far, all we have is conjecture. And some really bad conjecture at that," the former Hogwarts student said as he turned around and walked over to his husband. "You've been in a crabby mood all night. You wanna talk about it?"

Edward clenched his jaw a few times before saying answering. "You were attracted to him."

"What?"

"McLaggen. When you saw him, you remembered seeing him shirtless at Hogwarts."

"That was years ago," Harry said with a dismissive laugh. "I was thirteen and didn't even comprehend that I was gay yet. I saw him shirtless in the boys' lavatory one night and was . . . well, I don't know what I felt."

"It was attraction."

"So what if it was? That was well over a year before I met you. Before I even realized that I was gay. Are you planning on acting like this around every boy I ever cast a furtive glance upon?"

The older vampire gave an uncharacteristic grunt in response that made Harry laugh a little.

"Are you telling me that I'm the only person in a century that you've been attracted to?"

Another grunt in response.

"Look into my mind and tell me truly, husband," the younger immortal said as he closed the distance between where he was standing and where his husband was seated, "have I ever imagined spending my life with anyone other than you?"

Edward muttered, "No."

Harry smirked a little was he pushed back on his husband's chest forcefully and straddled his hips. "And, have I ever given serious thought to having sex with anyone other than you?"

"_Serious_ thought?" Edward questioned playfully.

The younger vampire reached out and flicked his husband on the forehead. "I see that mere words aren't going to be enough to convince you that you're the only one for me. So I'll just have to use my other talents of persuasion."

"I can live with that."


	64. Chapter 64

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 64: Crime and Punishment**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Sixty-Three – Crime and Punishment**

Sirius cursed for what must have been the twelfth time since the group arrived in their bramble-covered hiding spot. He was very bored crouched down out of sight with the rest of the attack party. The entire Cullen family, their two shapeshifter friends, and Sirius Black were all hiding in the overgrown foliage that filled the space opposite of the gates of Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire.

Sirius had arranged the date and time of the attack with his cousin, Narcissa. The blond witch left for a dinner party out at seven o'clock and the vampires would make their move at eight. The one hour delay was designed to minimize the amount of blame for the attack that fell on Lady Malfoy's shoulders in the days to come. There would still be suspicion, but it would be far less than if the attack happened mere moments after she left.

Leah shot the animagus a reproachful glare at the sound of his expletive. Harry and the rest of the group remained still with their eyes fixed on the twisting and seemingly random swirling patterns of the iron gates.

The Malfoy residence was a very handsome manor house that was surrounded by gardens of very fragrant—and, Harry believed, very expensive—flowers. The lands also boasted fountains, a number of smaller support buildings detached from the manor house, and a few animals. The animal scent was hard to place, but all of the vampires agreed that it was definitely some sort of fowl.

After another quarter hour, Carlisle announced, "It's time."

As one, the group stood and moved to the large hedges that bordered the estate. Harry took the lead when they reached the border. The young vampire took hold of his godfather and jumped over the perfectly sculpted hedge in one easy bound. The remaining members of the party landed softly beside him less than a second later.

The manor was usually protected by a wide range of magical enchantments, but Narcissa had secretly disabled most of them before leaving for her dinner; she would replace them when she returned later that night to 'discover' her poor sister's remains. Under normal circumstances, no one could pass over the top of the hedges and only a Malfoy or someone with a Dark Mark branded on their arm could pass through the front gates. Unless, of course, the gates were opened for them. Although the witch was able to remove the enchantments on the hedges, removing the protection on the gates was too risky; the enchantment had been cast by Voldemort himself when he resided in the manor some months earlier.

Harry was momentarily distracted by an albino peacock that stopped abruptly on its walk across the perfectly manicured landscape. The poor animal looked like it was about to die of fright at the sight of eight vampires invading its territory.

Once everyone was on the manor side of the hedge, they began to sprint towards the house. The original plan had been to simply burst through either the front door or the diamond-shaped panes of glass on the first floor, but they'd changed plans because of the risk of Bellatrix or her husband managing to use their Dark Marks to summon help before the assassins could reach them. The alternative was to slip in through a secret passage that Narcissa had revealed to them, hunt their prey through the manor, and then kill them before they could call in reinforcements.

The eleven attackers bypassed the manor house and moved to one of the additional structures positioned at the far back of the estate. Specifically, they went to a fair-sized set of servants' quarters that were detached from the main house. The Malfoy family had used House Elves rather than human servants for generations. The House Elves were given a small cupboard in the manor house to live in, so the servants' residence had been transformed into storage space. The little building was, therefore, devoid of witnesses.

Jasper took the lead once the group reached the little structure and pulled open the door that had been left unlocked for them. The building housed a wide variety of items ranging from garden furniture to tools that the House Elves used to maintain the perfect lawn. In the back corner was a barrel fixed to the floor. Underneath the barrel's false bottom was a ladder that led into a set of tunnels underneath the estate.

The tunnels had been constructed several decades earlier by Lucius Malfoy's father, Abraxas Malfoy, as a means of escaping a siege of the manor house. More importantly, however, was the fact that the tunnels led into the cellar below the house and would provide an unnoticed point of entry for the group of vampires and their allies.

The group traveled through the pitch-black corridor for several minutes. Sirius and, to a lesser extent, the shapershifters were all but blind in the tunnel and so had to rely on whatever vampire happened to be standing nearest to guide them. At the end of the tunnel was another ladder. The second ladder was shorter than the first and led into a dark cell in the bowels of the manor. All of the vampires tensed as soon as the hatch that covered the ladder was breached.

"What?" Leah whispered quietly.

"Blood," Harry answered as he heard all of his relatives except for Carlisle stop breathing. "Human blood."

"Stay put," Carlisle said as he pushed his way to the front of the troop with Harry in tow. "We'll check it out."

Carlisle and Harry passed Jasper as they climbed up the ladder and entered the dark cell. Rosalie, the third of the three vampires who was mostly immune to the scent of human blood, remained behind to forcibly restrain any of the other members of the family who made an attempt at rushing towards the scent. The little enclosure was surrounded on all sides but one by dark stone and on the final side by a set of metal bars.

The vampires moved silently to the metal bars and pushed the unlocked door open with great care so as to avoid causing them to creak. With their enhanced eyesight, Carlisle and Harry were able to see a steep staircase, a wooden door, ten other empty cells in addition to the one they just vacated, and one cell that had what appeared to be an old man shivering on its floor. The smell of blood came from a gash on the wizard's head. The younger immortal recognized the wizard as Ollivander, the man that crafted and sold Harry his now-broken holly and phoenix feather wand.

Harry reached the occupied cell first. The door was locked. The vampire frowned before bringing his pale claws to the lock and tearing it into pieces. With lightning-quick reflexes, Carlisle managed to catch the broken shards of metal before they hit the floor. The vampiric physician gave Harry a stern look that ordered him to be more careful before gently placing the remains of the lock on the stone floor. The duo entered the cell and checked the wizard over.

"He's extremely dehydrated. And malnourished. He has quite a few lascerations, but nothing too deep. He's also cold, but not anywhere near hypothermic just yet. I'd say he'll be alright, but he does need to get out of here," the older vampire said as he removed his coat and wrapped it around the old man as best he could. "And soon."

"The others and I will go ahead with the plan," Harry said in a hushed tone. "You stay here with him. Once we finish upstairs, we can take him out through the front. It'll be better than trying to take him through the escape hatch."

The vampire patriarch nodded his head before watching his youngest son leave the cell. A few moments later, he heard the sound of the rest of the attack group entering the little dungeon and head for the stairs.

The steep and narrow stairs led to a small broom closet just off of the drawing room. As Harry's feet moved silently across the exquisite carpet that covered the stone floor, he couldn't help but marvel at the room's crystal chandelier, the gilded mirror above the fireplace, and all of the tasteful antiques that were decorating the room.

Once in the drawing room, Sirius drew his wand and the shapeshifters undressed and changed into their wolf forms. The wolves and the vampires began to sniff the air and listen carefully for the slightest sign of life in the house.

"He's known about the cabinet since his fifth year and the stupid boy only now thought to mention it!" a voice shrieked. Harry and Edward immediately recognized Bellatrix Lestrange's voice from the Hog's Head.

"Calm down," a bored-sounded man placated. "The important thing is that he _did_ remember it. The cabinet may be the key to getting the job done before the Dark Lord sends any more of us at the old fool. If he talks to the man you've directed him to, fixing the damage should be easy. We can be ready to move in a matter of days."

The argument came from just a bit down the hall. Silently, Jasper and Edward led the group down the hallway past a dozen of portraits in which various Malfoys were sleeping. Jasper rounded a corner before quickly move backwards.

"What?" Alice asked so softly that no human, including Sirius, could hear.

"They are in some sort of atrium. It's almost all glass, like a greenhouse. Including the doors that separate it from the rest of the house. If either she or her husband had been turned my way, she would have seen me."

"Stick to the plan," Rosalie urged. "Hit them hard and fast. If we move quickly enough, they won't have time to stop us, even if they see us coming."

"Leah thinks we should send a few people back outside in case they try to break through the glass to escape. Hit them from all sides," Edward said. "And I agree."

"No way. We should just go now and get this over with," Emmett said a bit too loudly.

One of the old men in a nearby portrait snorted for a moment before blinking open his eyes. "Wha-Huh? Who dares? Burglars! You dare to burgle this most ancient and noble home!" The shout woke up several other portraits, the occupants of which soon began to make noise as well.

"Bollocks," Sirius muttered as the two Death Eaters down the hall went silent and Rosalie smacked her husband on the back of the head.

Jake didn't wait for anything else to go wrong, he just sprinted the last bit of the hallway and rounded the corner towards the atrium.

"No time to for discussion," Edward said as he, Jasper, and Leah chased after Jacob. The remaining members of the party weren't far behind them.

Harry rounded the corner in time to see Bellatrix's furious expression as she pulled her wand and began throwing curses at Jacob as the wolf crashed through the glass doors of the atrium. Her husband, Rodolphus, wore a mask of terror as he saw the small army of vampires and their allies racing towards him and his wife.

"Curse them, you worthless cretin!" Bellatrix shouted as she lobbed another spell, this one a sickly yellow color, at Jacob.

The alpha had successfully dodged all of the spells, but he'd been forced into dodging to the side in order to avoid being hit. As a result, he had gotten as close to the witch as possible; she was able to hold him at bay.

Bellatrix's spells were coming faster but her aim was getting even worse as the group neared her. The attack clearly caught her off guard and the number of attackers had her quite flustered. She finally spared a momentarily glance at her unarmed husband before shrieking at him again. "The Mark, you fool! The Mark!"

Rodolphus fumbled for his wand for a moment as his wife expertly cast a spell that created a line of fire to divide the room and, she hoped, keep her assailants a safe distance from her. Once the line had been created, she went back to tossing spells of every color of the rainbow at her enemies, occasionally reflecting Sirius's spells at her opponents as well. A jet of blue light shot from the witch's wand and hit Esme square in the chest. The female vampire was sent flying back through the atrium's entry.

With a howl of anger, Emmett took hold of a round plate from a nearby tray and threw it at Bellatrix as hard as he could. The witch let out a high-pitched cry as she hurled herself to the floor to avoid the projectile; had she not dropped to the ground when she did, the disc would have cut the top half of her head off. Instead, the plate broke through and shattered the pane of glass directly behind her.

Although he knew he shouldn't have, Harry ignored the fight for several seconds to check on his mother. The female vampire slowly sat up from where she landed. She looked like she was in pain and was gripping the front of her now-ruined blouse. The important thing for the moment, however, was that she had survived.

By this point, Rodolphus had finally managed to bring his wand out from the pocket of his robe and pull up his sleeve. He was just about to touch the Dark Mark on his arm with it when Leah jumped through the line of flames that his wife had created and bit the wizard's wand arm. Rodolphus let out a cry of pain as his wand slipped through his fingers and clattered to the floor.

Bellatrix realized what was happening and took aim as she tried to get up from the floor. "Avada Kedavra!"

The jet of green light raced towards the shapeshifter as she mauled the Death Eater. Rodolphus had been pushed back against a chair he had been sitting in. The chair had been turned by Leah's impact into the wizard such that she was now positioned with her back facing Bellatrix. For one terrible moment, Harry was certain his friend was about to die.

Alice, with the grace of a dancer, leapt through the flames in the same instant as when the incantation left the evil witch's lips. Once through, the vampire prophet landed on the floor and began to slide. With only a few centimeters to spare, Alice managed to take hold of Leah's back left leg and pull her out of the line of fire.

Harry could hear Leah's leg break from the force of Alice's yank as the green spell connected with Rodolphus's chest. The wizard didn't even realize what was happening; one moment he was being mauled by a large canine and, the next, he was dead. His face was frozen in an expression of pain from the wounds Leah had inflicted upon him.

While Bellatrix was temporarily distracted by her killing her own husband, Sirius stepped forward and shot a white stream from his wand that resembled the discharge of a fire extinguisher. The line of fire that Bellatrix had created to hold her attackers at bay was erased almost instantaneously and the witch found herself surrounded by her assailants.

"You're finished, my not-so-dear cousin," Sirius said cockily.

The Lestrange widow had stopped her frantic spellcasting and was now moving her wand back and forth in a threatening manner. "Oh, my poor simple blood traitor of a cousin, I'm far from finished."

"What do think you're going to do? Apparate away?" the animagus asked snidely. "So sorry to break the news to you, but Cissy left that particular enchantment in place."

"Cissy?" Bellatrix asked breathlessly. "She'd never betray me like this. She _needs_ me. She needs me to-"

"To what? Save her son?" Sirius asked as he shook his wand at her lazily. "She's found someone else for that particular task."

"You?" the dark-haired witch asked before cackling madly. "You couldn't even save yourself from being shipped off to Azkaban for something you didn't even do. How can you possibly save Draco?" she spat.

Sirius didn't answer the witch; he just held his wand on her while waiting for one of the vampires to end her life. Several times, one of the vampires would begin to move towards her only to have her shift her focus to them.

Edward and Harry separated from one another and moved to stand so that they could flank Bellatrix. The witch seemed to figure out what was going on as he eyes darted franticly between the two of them.

"You'll get nothing from me. I will never betray my lord," she said with a note of resignation in her voice. The witch jabbed her arm up quickly and sent a spell towards the glass ceiling of the atrium. Starting from the point at which the spell made contact with the ceiling, all of the glass in the room began to burst inward towards Bellatrix.

Harry realized that the witch had just committed suicide. She evidently believed that this was a retrieval mission, not an assassination. As the glass began to fly inwards, he also realized that the deadly, knife-like shards were likely to cut the rest of the non-vampires in the room into ribbons along with the insane witch. The young vampire turned on his heel and dove on top of his godfather, shielding the animagus from the debris. Edward joined him immediately afterwards.

When the tinkling sound of glass making contact with the floor and other pieces of glass ceased, the vampire raised his head to survey the damage. He wasn't interested in what had happened to the room or even to Bellatrix; his eyes searched out Leah and Jacob. Both, to Harry's great relief, were safe. Alice had managed to flip Leah over, push her against the chair, and shield her body from the glass. Both Emmett and Jasper, meanwhile, had thrown themselves on top of Jake.

Leah had a broken leg and some singed fur, but was otherwise uninjured. The other two non-vampires appeared to be totally unharmed.

Once he was certain that his godfather and two shapeshifter friends were alright, Harry allowed himself to investigate Bellatrix. Edward beat him to her, though.

"She's still alive," the older vampire said in amazement.

Harry rushed to his mate's side and looked down on the witch. Her face was totally unrecognizable, massive cuts littered her body, she was missing large chunks of flesh from both of her arms and both of her legs, and a sizeable shard of glass was embedded just above her right breast. The sound of her beating heart was very faint and her breath was shallow. With each breath the witch forced in and out of her mouth, she gurgled up a little bit of blood.

The mess was enough that Harry could see Emmett forcibly holding Jasper back from the corner of his eyes. After a few attempts by Jasper to get to the source of the spilled blood, the brawnier vampire pulled his brother from the room.

"The merciful thing to do would be to snap her neck," Edward said dispassionately as he reached out for the witch.

Harry's own hand shot out and caught his husband's. "No," he said firmly. In as emotionless a tone as he'd ever used, he continued. "She tortured Neville Longbottom's parents until they went mad. No mercy for her. A few moments of pain at the end isn't enough punishment for the things she's done, but it's a start."

Edward looked at his husband in surprise for a moment before withdrawing his hand. The pair sat in silence as they listened to Bellatrix Lestrange draw her last breath.


	65. Chapter 65

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 65: Trust**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Sixty-Four – Trust**

Harry stood at the threshold to the first floor bedroom of 12 Grimmauld Place. The room was usually reserved for Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley, but its current occupant was Mr. Ollivander.

The elderly wandsmith had been found shivering on the stone floor of one of the cells of Malfoy Manor. Although Harry had initially thought that Saint Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries was the best place for him to be treated, the decision was made to instead bring the wizard to 12 Grimmauld Place in order to avoid any attempt by Death Eaters to recapture him. This meant, among other things, that Carlisle would be treating Ollivander instead of a healer. It also meant that Sirius had to use a spell on Ollivander to wake him up just long enough to pass the Secret to him so that he would be allowed admittance to the residence.

The youngest of the Cullen coven was as still as a statue as he watched Carlisle examine Ollivander. Although the vampire was very interested in why Voldemort had taken the time to capture the wandsmith alive, his mind was elsewhere.

Harry tried to tell himself that allowing Bellatrix Lestrange to suffer before her death was the right thing to do. She was a Death Eater guilty of horrible crimes and deserved every moment of agony she'd inflicted upon herself. And allowing her to succumb to her own self-inflicted injuries would make sure that Harry could honestly say he didn't kill the witch if he or another of his allies was questioned about the matter. But none of the rationales he came up with changed the fact that he felt a little bit guilty about not doing the merciful thing by ending her suffering.

"He's coming to," Carlisle said from his place at Ollivander's bedside. The older vampire looked at his youngest son. "You should get Leah or Jacob; he might not react too well to being confronted by any of the rest of us first thing."

"Right," Harry replied before turning from the room and heading down to the dining room. The rest of the attack group was seated around the large table. Edward, Alice, Emmett, and Rosalie were seated at one end of the table and were fussing over Esme. The mother vampire had been hit with a nasty curse by Belltrix during the fight that left her shaken and hungry; she seemed to be okay otherwise. Sirius was down at the other end of the table serving large mugs of butterbeer to Leah and Jacob, both of whom had been let in on the Secret in the same manner as Ollivander.

"Jacob, Leah," the young vampire said as he entered the room. "He's starting to come around and Carlisle thinks that it would be best if one of you is with Ollivander when he wakes up."

"Why one of us?" the alpha asked as sat his mug down.

"Why do you think, Sherlock? The guy's a thousand years old. Waking up to the sight of a convicted mass murderer or a vampire will probably kill him," Leah answered. "We at least look normal."

Harry couldn't help but smirk at the way Rosalie growled lightly at the 'looking normal' comment. "Just explain the basics of what's going on to him. Get him ready so that he doesn't freak out when Carlisle enters the room."

The youngest of the immortals remained in the kitchen after Leah and Jacob left to assist Carlisle. He turned to ask his godfather if he had figured out what spell Bellatrix had hit his new mother with when the fireplace's darkening embers burst into life in a green display of magic as Severus Snape stormed into 12 Grimmauld Place with Alastor Moody, Minerva McGonagall, and Albus Dumbledore hot on his trail.

"Albus! I wasn't expecting you tonight," Sirius said in a normal tone that didn't hint that anything was amiss.

Harry knew that the animagus's attempt to act normal was pointless. Mad-Eye Moody's magical eye had already stopped its usually mad spinning in its socket and trained itself in the direction of the first floor bedroom by the time Sirius had finished his statement.

"What the blazes is going on here!" Moody demanded before Albus could answer the question.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sirius replied.

Seeing that the old Auror was about to spill the beans about the presence of Leah, Jacob, and Ollivander, Harry decided to reveal the information first. "Are you talking about our guests?"

"Guests?" the headmaster asked sharply.

"Some extended family members decided to stay with us for a while and assist in the fight," Harry began. "They are upstairs tending to Ollivander's injuries."

"So you _are_ responsible. I always knew you'd follow in your godfather's footsteps and become a murdering little bastard," Snape sneered.

"The filthy Death Eater wants to call my godson a murderer?" Sirius said threateningly as he brandished his wand. Snape didn't back down from the challenge and pulled his own wand and aimed it at his childhood nemesis.

In Harry's opinion, he'd done a rather spectacular job at keeping his temper in check around the potions professor. When he was younger, he'd rise to the bait every time Snape would taunt him or one of his loved ones. In recent weeks, however, he'd demonstrated a not-inconsequential amount of patience and self control. Sure, there were times when the vampire would respond to one of the wizard's verbal barbs with one of his own, but he'd avoided any major confrontation. Not once had the wizard levied his superior speed and skill against the wizard. Until now, that is.

In a series of movements far too fast for any of the wizards to adequately track, Harry leapt over the dining room table, took hold of Severus Snape by the neck and the wrist of his wand arm, and thrust the wizard up against the wall to the right of the fireplace. The impacts caused several small pieces of plaster rain down on the pair.

"Drop the wand," Harry commanded as he applied pressure to the man's wrist. He could hear a popping sound as the bone came very near to breaking. "Now."

Snape sneered defiantly at his most hated pupil as best he could in his oxygen-deprived state before relenting. His wand fell to the floor with a clatter.

"Harry," Dumbledore said in a voice that, if the vampire wasn't mistaken, was pleading.

The young immortal released the potions professor and turned to face the headmaster. Snape let out an involuntary gasp as his throat was released. When Harry was in a better position to face the rest of the room, he noticed that both Moody and McGonagall were fingering their wands but had not actually drawn them. The vampires in the room all looked like they were prepared to spring into action if any of the other wizards in the room had attempted to curse Harry.

"He does that again, I break his wand in two," Harry said coolly to the headmaster. He could hear the potions professor start to move towards his wand, so the vampire placed his foot on top of the ebony rod to ensure that it stayed where he dropped it.

"To be fair, Harry, Sirius drew his wand first."

"I don't care. I'm sick to death of Snape and his bullshit. He may have been the biggest bully in school when I was eleven and you were perfectly happy to let him do whatever he wanted to whomever he wanted, but this isn't your school and I'm _not_ eleven anymore. You keep him quiet or you keep him away from me."

The vampire strolled past the headmaster and rejoined his family. Snape retrieved his wand as soon as Harry was no longer standing on it, but showed the common sense to not try to push his luck in a room with quite so many vampires.

Esme looked like she highly disapproved of what Harry had just done, but the others all had expressions ranging from smirks to full-blown grins. Emmett, in particular, looked like he'd enjoyed watching the wizard that had spent the better part of two months belittling his family get a little bit of payback. Sirius was also grinning wildly as he pocketed his wand.

Dumbledore broke the tense silence after a few more seconds. "If we are capable of acting like adults for a few moments, let us discuss the events of this evening. We," he said as he motioned to his companions, "came here to call an emergency Order meeting to discuss some news we have received from Ms. Tonks: Aurors were called to Malfoy Manor to investigate the murders of Rodolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange."

"Let's cut to the chase," Edward said from Harry's left. "You want to know what we had to do with it."

"I didn't know that you were involved until just a moment ago."

"I have a question before we go any further," Jasper said from his seat next to Esme. "Snape clearly knew where Ollivander was being held; how else would he have known that we were involved in tonight's events just by the fact that we have Ollivander recovering upstairs? My question, headmaster, is this: did you know where Ollivander was being held?"

The headmaster gave Severus a momentary glance of disapproval. "I was aware that Voldemort had taken him captive, but I was unaware of the location of his captivity."

Several of the room's occupants cast suspicious glances in the direction of the potions professor. The wizard returned those looks with his usual dispassion. Any trace of humiliation or anger at Harry's actions had completely faded from his features.

"Bellatrix killed Rodolphus by accident when she was trying to hex one of us," Harry said. "And she killed herself rather than be taken alive."

The old wizard nodded once. "I suspected as much. At least, as far as Bellatrix Lestrange's death is concerned. A simple _Piori Incantatem_ performed by Ms. Tonks revealed that the last spell she cast was a rather advanced shattering charm. Given the state of her remains . . ." he trailed off momentarily. "What I want to know is why you did this. Why go to Malfoy Manor in the first place?"

Harry knew once they brought Ollivander back to Grimmauld Place that there was a strong likelihood that he'd be placed in a position where he would have to decide whether or not to try and keep this motivations a secret. He had wanted to hide the truth until after the deal with Narcissa Malfoy was completed and the Cup of Hufflepuff was destroyed. But it seemed that Fate had other things in mind. As he mentally weighed his options, a plan formed in his mind. "Who ratted my parents out to Voldemort?" he demanded.

The headmaster and his companions, Professor Snape included, looked uniformly stunned at the vampire's question.

"You know that I won't reveal that information to you, Harry."

Sirius was looking at his godson in shock. "Harry, you know that it was Peter that revealed their location."

"I'm not talking about the Fidelius Charm, Sirius. I'm talking about the circumstances that led to my parents being targeted in the first place. Dumbledore has already told me that someone passed information along to Voldemort that put my parents at the top of his 'to kill' list. He wouldn't tell me when I asked before. But now the situation has changed. I have information he wants and he has information I want. It's time to deal." His eyes momentarily strayed to his prime suspect: Snape.

"That is something I will not tell you. Trust in me when I say that the person realizes the mistake he made," the old wizard said wearily.

"I'm not going to kill him, if that's what you're thinking," Harry said. "You have my word on that. But you're asking me to be completely honest with you when you're not being completely honest with me."

"I am sorry, Harry. But I will not reveal the wizard's name. I keep secrets because I must; you know that. And this is one secret that I must keep."

The young vampire shook his head in disappointment. "Y'know, I've been defending you for weeks. Every time someone says that they think you're up to something, I always point out that we should trust you until you prove yourself untrustworthy. I held out hope that you would be the man I always thought you were. But I just realized something: you've already proven yourself untrustworthy.

"I hold three people responsible for my parents' deaths: Voldemort, Pettigrew, and whoever it was that sent Voldemort after my parents in the first place. You're protecting one of those men from facing the consequences of his actions. And not even the consequences her deserves. All he's going to get is a good tongue-lashing. There will be some shame involved as well, I'm sure. But, as long as he has your protection, he won't go to Azkaban. So why keep protecting him? As long as you do, I don't think that I can have anything else to do with you."

"Harry," Dumbledore pleaded.

"Get out of my house," Sirius said dangerously. The headmaster made to protest, but was cut off. "Out of my house!"

Albus Dumbledore looked like he'd just lost his last friend in the world. He was looking at the floor and struggling to speak. In all of his life, Harry had never seen the wizard so downtrodden or lost. He expected the man to reveal the wizard's identity or, at the very least, to argue and try to convince Harry that he was doing the right thing by keeping the wizard's name a secret. But he didn't. To everyone's shock, Dumbledore just turned around and flooed back to the headquarters of the International Confederation of Wizards. After a few seconds, the gobsmacked Professor McGonagall, the dispassionate Professor Snape, and the disgruntled Alastor Moody left as well.

Silence reigned in the dining room for several seconds as the various occupants watched Harry.

"That wasn't supposed to happen," Harry whispered after a bit.

"What?" Alice asked.

"He was supposed to give me the name. He was supposed to prove that we could trust him. That he trusted me to not kill whoever it is. But he didn't. He just . . . he left. Keeping his secrets is more important than . . ." Harry said despondently.

"Harry?" Edward asked quietly as he inched closer to the young vampires. "Love?"

"We, uh, we have to contact Narcissa Malfoy and make sure she's ready to do her part," Harry changed the subject. "Sirius?"

"Yes?" the animagus asked.

"I forgot to make that drawing for you. But I know where you can get one. Go to Ron's dresser. In the top drawer there are a bunch of chocolate frog cards. Find the one of Helga Hufflepuff. She's holding a cup. That's what we're after." The dark-haired immortal massaged his forehead for a moment before saying anything else. "I need to go upstairs and talk with Ollivander. See what he knows."

"I can do that," Jasper offered.

"No," Harry said as he walked from the room. "He already knows me, after all."

"Harry," Edward said as he chased after his husband.

The youngest of the coven stopped mometarily to answer his mate's call. "I'll be okay, Edward. I'm just . . . I'm shocked is all. I really thought that if I gave him the opportunity to prove to you that he was willing to be aboveboard about something like that, that he would. I was wrong, you were right. He doesn't trust us. He doesn't trust me. Maybe if I hadn't fought with Snape earlier . . ."

"He still would have kept it a secret," the older vampire assured his husband.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe by going after Snape earlier I played into his doubts about whether or not I'd kill the wizard he's protecting."

"You gave Dumbledore your word that you wouldn't kill the wizard that caused your parents' deaths. If he won't take your word for it, then he clearly doesn't trust you. And if he doesn't trust you, then how can we trust him?" Edward questioned.

"I don't know. But it doesn't change the fact that I may have just made our mission that much harder."


	66. Chapter 66

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 66: The Wandmaker, the Wife, and the Widow**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Sixty-Five – The Wandmaker, the Wife, and the Widow**

Harry returned to the first floor bedroom slowly. If he was a mortal, one would think he was exhausted from his weary movements. The young vampire knocked on the closed door three times before letting himself in. Mr. Ollivander was sitting upright in the bed as Carlisle re-dressed some of the minor cuts on his arms. The wandsmith's wide, pale eyes turned to Harry as soon as he entered the room.

"Mr. Potter," the old wizard said in a parched voice. "Eleven inches, holly with a phoenix tail feather core. Nice and supple, as I recall."

"You remember me?" Harry asked in surprise. He managed to restrain his teenage sense of humor from making a joke about the 'nice and supple' description.

"I believe that I once told you that I remembered every wand I have ever sold. And as for recognizing you now that you've become an immortal, I had the tiniest bit of help," Ollivander explained as his eyes darted momentarily to Jacob and Leah.

"That makes sense. How are you feeling?"

"Much better, thanks to you and your friends."

"They're more like family than friends," Harry said as he playfully nudged Jake on the arm. "Jake, can you get him some water?"

"Sure thing."

The dark-haired vampire returned his attention to the wand merchant as the alpha shapeshifter left the room. "I was wondering if you were up for a short talk."

"Ah, yes. I was beginning to wonder when someone would begin to question me about why He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named took me from my shop some time ago," the wizard said thoughtfully. "He was most curious about your wand."

"My wand?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Because of the twin cores. He wanted to know how he could overcome the _Priori Incantatem_ effect that resulted from the connection between your holly wand and his yew one."

"What did you tell him?" Leah questioned as she limped over to Harry's side on her mending leg.

"The only thing I could: use a different wand."

Harry snorted. "Really? I don't mean that sound insulting or anything, but I'm surprised that that's the answer. 'Use a different wand?' I was expecting something more complex."

"Of course, Mr. Potter," Ollivander said softly. He paused for a moment to take a sip of the glass of water that Jake brought him. "The problem he faced was with the twin cores. To overcome that problem, he needs to use a wand with a different core; there is no other solution. Even a wand with a tail feather from a different phoenix will suffice. But as long as he wields a wand with a twin core to your own, the spells will cancel one another out and the reverse spell effect will be forced upon one of the wands."

"My wand was destroyed almost a year ago, so Voldemort is wasting his time if he's searching for a new wand. It may take him a while to find a second wand that will pick him," Harry said to Ollivander. "I'm sorry that he put you through all of this because of me."

Ollivander ignored Harry's apology and focused instead on the fate of Harry's holly wand. "Destroyed, you say? How badly damaged was it? It may be possible for me to repair it."

"Snapped into multiple pieces," Harry answered. "I have them in my luggage; I could get them for you if you want."

"I'm sorry to say that if your wand has been broken as you indicate, there is no chance of fixing it properly," Ollivander said before taking another sip of water. "I have heard cases of realigning the snapped pieces and encasing them in new wood, but the result is never anywhere nearly as effective as the original wand."

Harry nodded his head in resignation over his broken wand. He shouldn't have gotten his hopes up that his wand could be repaired; however, the idea of having an umbrella like Hagrid's was intriguing. "Carlisle's an excellent doctor. You'll be back on your feet in no time," the immortal said, changing the subject.

"I have ever confidence in his abilities," the wandsmith said with a smile. "Thank you again, Mr. Potter."

The vampire smiled at the wizard, feeling a sense of pride at having played a part in saving the old wizard from his torment. He turned and left the room. His husband was waiting for him just beyond the door.

"Sirius has finished transfiguring the replica," Edward said as soon as the door to the bedroom was closed.

"Good," Harry replied. "We should be ready to meet with Narcissa first thing in the morning. We can't go tonight; her house is going to be swarming with Aurors for hours to come. We'll need to have Sirius send her an owl to arrange someplace to meet with her."

"Makes sense," the older immortal said.

"Is Sirius mad at me for not mentioning that Dumbledore knew who caused Voldemort to zero in on my parents in the first place?"

"He's a bit irritated. He kicked the House Elf a few times, took down a painting from Ron's room, and then got to work."

"Kreacher is a little fiend, but I don't think I approve of Sirius kicking him," Harry muttered.

"Kreacher will be fine and Sirius will get over it. You should slow down, though. You may not tire like a mortal, but you still need to process everything; you've witnessed two gruesome deaths, saved a wandmaker, got into a scrape with Snape, and had a falling out with Dumbledore in pretty quick succession."

"No, I'd much rather stay busy."

"Did his approval mean so much to you?" Edward asked in concern. "Is that why you've been so keen to give him the benefit of the doubt?"

"That's not it exactly," the younger vampire told his mate with a sigh. "I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, as you put it, because I had no reason not to. After the . . . unpleasantness of my first trip to the Burrow in August, he's been really open and honest. He apologized for some of his mistakes, revealed the prophecy to me, and told me what the deal was with the Horcruxes. He even used the Unbreakable Vows to protect our secrets. The only thing that I knew for sure that he was keeping from me was the identity of the eavesdropper that told Voldemort about the prophecy.

"For years, Dumbledore has seemed like this great wizard. He was my hero when I was at Hogwarts; I aspired to be at least half as great a wizard as he was. Even with the screw ups I knew he'd made, like sending me to the Dursleys' and not pushing for a trial for Sirius, he still seemed so great and powerful to me. I don't know why, but he just did. I think this is just me coming to terms with the fact that my hero isn't what I built him up to be in my mind."

"It's part of growing up," Edward supplied.

"You're kidding, right?" Harry asked with a laugh. "I'm going to be seventeen forever. So are you. I don't think 'growing up' really applies here."

"You'd be surprised," the taller vampire said as he put his arm around his husband's shoulders and began to lead him down the stairs. "Emmett has really matured over the last few decades."

In the distance, Emmett made an indignant shout at Edward's comment. The rest of the family just laughed.

Harry, Edward, Jasper, and Alice escorted Esme back to the hotel a short while later. Sirius had determined that she'd been hit with a Wasting Curse, a spell designed to magically starve an individual to death. Because Esme was a vampire and, therefore didn't eat food, the spell's effects were greatly diminished. It had only managed to dry out some of the blood in her system and make her a bit peckish. After a good feeding, she'd be just fine. Dawn was approaching, so the hunt would have to be put off until the next evening; it was going to be too bright of a day to risk the trip to a good hunting ground. Esme was returned to the hotel so that the scent of Ollivander's wounds wouldn't tempt her as the day wore on; better to keep her isolated in one of the suites.

There was no real need for Esme to have so many escorts; at best, she'd need two vampires to restrain her if she succumbed to her hunger. But Harry wasn't too keen on remaining in Grimmauld Place with a sulking Sirius. Getting out into the fresh night air was very attractive to him.

The carmel-haired vampire walked slowly next to her youngest child as they made their trip across London. "I owe you an apology," she said about halfway through the trek.

"An apology?" Harry questioned.

"Yes. Jasper pointed out that I was a bit too disapproving in the way you handled things with Snape."

"Don't worry about it; I'm not sure that I handled things correctly myself. I could have disarmed Snape without throwing him against the wall, choking him, or almost breaking his wrist."

Esme hesitated before continuing. When she continued, her voice was very soft. "Please don't think that I don't want you stand up for yourself; on the contrary, I would prefer you to never take Snape's insults without comment. My concern, dear, is that you're getting too used to being around wizards. When the rest of us had to adjust to being vampires, we did so first in seclusion and then around normal humans. The first time we were around other people, we had to be very careful to control ourselves. When placed in situations like you were just in, we had to restrain ourselves until restraint became the natural reaction for us.

"My concern is that by learning to adjust to your transformation around wizards, you're learning to rely on your vampiric abilities far more than you should. When this affair is over, you're going to be surrounded by normal humans and not wizards; people who can never know of what you are. I'm afraid that the late adjustment might prove difficult, especially considering how everything else about this has come so naturally to you. It might be hard for you to go from being able to be yourself all the time to being forced to restrain yourself most of the time.

"You have been very good about not flaunting your abilities, but he Volturi are already watching us very closely. One incident between you and a normal human like what happened today with Snape and they will seize upon it and use it against you. They feel threatened by the size of our coven and will not be forgiving for any transgressions in the future. Please, forgive me for my disapproval; I was just afraid for you."

"There's nothing to forgive; I'm not so thin-skinned that a mere glance will break me," Harry said with a smile. He was surprised by how much thought had gone into Esme's simple facial expression several hours earlier. "That having been said, I'm glad to know your reasons. I'll keep them in mind. My presence has brought the Volturi down on you once; the last thing I want is to give them another reason to threaten us."

"They will always be a threat," Edward pointed out darkly from his husband's other side.

By the time the group reached the hotel, Edward and Harry had to return to 12 Grimmauld Place. They only remained at the hotel long enough to make sure they hadn't been followed from Sirius's house by anyone. Jasper was already seated in front of the television watching a news story about a series of murders of doctors throughout Europe by the time Edward and Harry left.

They arrived to find that Sirius had already left for Diagon Alley in order to reveal the Secret to Narcissa Malfoy and escort her back to the terrace house. Emmett and Rosalie had both been quite adamant about not revealing the Secret to the witch until after they had secured the Cup of Hufflepuff, but that wasn't a very realistic option. Voldemort would know of Bellatrix Lestrange's death soon—if he didn't already—and might see fit to reclaim his Horcrux as soon as possible. They needed to reveal the Secret to Narcissa in order to have a place that they could meet without risking being overheard or seen. She must be given the fake Horcrux so that she can replace the real one with it immediately.

Narcissa and her cousin arrived by floo shortly after dawn. The blond looked about the dining room in condescension for a few seconds before moving forward to address Harry.

"The deal is off," the blond said without preamble.

"What?" Harry demanded dangerously.

"I can't deliver on my end of the bargain. The Ministry is utilizing an obscure law—the Decree for Justifiable Confiscation—to examine everything that my sister owned."

The young vampire turned a questioning look to Sirius. The animagus explained, "It's a law that the Ministry passed some time ago to seize a dead wizard's assets and examine them to make sure that dark artifacts aren't being passed on. My mother used to scream about it all the time. But I've never heard of the Ministry actually using the law before."

"My sister was an escaped convict and unrepentant Death Eater who left everyone to the sister in whose house she was found dead by Aurors. The Ministry has rarely ever had powerful enough evidence to utilize the law in recent years. For the next month, I have no access to her possessions; the vault in being emptied as we speak and its contents will soon be sitting in the Ministry. This is, of course, to say nothing of the questions I will be receiving as to what she was doing in my home in the first place."

"Damnit," Harry snarled in frustration as he turned away from the blond witch. There was no telling what would happen to such a historically important artifact once it was discovered by the Ministry. Particularly in light of the fact that the Cup of Hufflepuff disappeared after its last owner, Hepzibah Smith, was murdered.

The younger vampire looked to his mate for help. "We need a new plan."

"Yes, well, you do that. Plan and scheme all you like. I'm washing my hands of this entire affair before anymore trouble pops out of the floo and lands on by hearth," Narcissa said.

"Oh no you're not," Sirius snapped at his cousin. He reached out a caught hold of her arm as she tried to make her way back to the floo. "Your son is still trying to find a way to kill Dumbledore. I'm not happy with the old bastard at the moment, but I'll be damned if I'm going to allow your son to do something that might endanger the students at Hogwarts."

"Unhand me you filthy blood traitor!" Narcissa demanded.

"We still have a deal," Edward said evenly. "Harry and I will take care of securing the heirloom. You just be ready to pull your brat out of Hogwarts and release your claim on Snape's Vow. Hogwarts is going to stay safe, whether you like it or not."

"You can't force me to forswear the Vow if I don't want to," Narcissa said. Her façade of confidence was belied by the quiver in her voice.

Harry had had quite enough of the aristocrat by this point. "You can forswear it willingly or we can kill you. Take your pick." It was an idle threat; he had no intention of killing the witch, but she was already afraid of the vampires and the threat would undoubtedly motivate her to do as he demanded.

Narcissa's lips flattened with such force that the unpainted edges of her lips turned white. "If anything happens to my son," she warned.

"The Vow I'll make to you will ensure that nothing happens to Draco," Sirius promised as he released his hold on his cousin. "But if you don't stick to the deal, you can be certain he'll die when he fails his master. Backing out now will gain you nothing."

The witch gave the animagus and two vampires one last sneer before leaving. "We still have a deal then, I suppose. But I will hold you to it, even if you fail to get whatever it is that my sister had that you are seeking."


	67. Chapter 67

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 67: The Cup of Hufflepuff**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Sixty-Six – The Cup of Hufflepuff**

After Narcissa Malfoy left, Sirius turned to Edward and asked, "Do you have a plan for getting the Cup?"

"I have the beginning of one."

"Don't leave us in suspense," Harry said as he leaned back against the edge of the large dining room table in an intentional display of human nonchalance.

"Cormac McLaggen."

Harry watched his husband for several seconds as he waited for him to continue describing his plan. When it became apparent that he didn't have anything else, he questioned, "That's it?"

"I said it was just a beginning," the older vampire replied with a shrug. Before either Harry or Sirius could protest further, he continued. "McLaggen's uncle is supposed to be really good friends with the Minister of Magic. He's full of a lot of hot air, but I think that McLaggen might just have enough clout and influence to get to the Cup and switch it with our fake one. If his uncle is really so important, then I bet there are scores of people who'd like to curry favor with him."

"That's not a very solid idea," the dark-haired wizard criticized. He absently scratched at the stubble on his chin as he spoke. "Assuming that McLaggen can get to the Cup, why would he help us?"

"Because he wants Harry to owe him a favor," Edward Cullen answered as he shifted his gaze away from Sirius and towards his husband. "McLaggen is a social climber who loves to be the center of attention. He's not the brightest guy in the world, but he is smart enough to know that when all of this is said and done, having 'the famous Harry Potter' singing his praises will be a big boost to his career. He'll be able to tell everyone how he helped the Boy-Who-Lived out of a really tight jam and was instrumental in bringing about Voldemort's defeat."

"Slight problem there: I'm a vampire. When this is over, I'm probably going to have to flee Britain as most wizards and witches chase after me with enchanted torches and pitchforks."

"Perhaps, but that wasn't how McLaggen was thinking the other night. He was interested in being all buddy-buddy with you so that when this is over he'll have a great story to tell at the pub to get girls with. Doesn't matter if it really will work out for him in the end, we just need him to think that it will," Edward assured his mate.

"Sirius?" Harry asked uncertainly. "What do you think?"

"I think that it might be our best shot," the wizard conceded reluctantly. "The only people we can talk to who can walk into the Ministry without getting being subjected to a ridiculous amount of attention are Arthur, Tonks, Kingsley, and McLaggen. Arthur just doesn't have the connections to get near the Cup and Kingsley won't help us after what happened last night with Dumbledore."

"Why not Tonks then?" the younger immortal asked.

"She's clumsy and everyone knows it. No chance in hell anyone examining the kinds of things kept in the Lestrange vault would let her within a good five meters of the Cup. She might be able to find the Cup, but she won't be able to switch it for the fake without trouble."

"Okay then," Harry said more to himself than anyone else. "So we should floo McLaggen, right?"

"Can't," Sirius said with a shake of his head. "The Minister has ordered all Ministry employees be put under surveillance. If we contact him directly, the Floo Network Authority will know. Him being contacted by a residence that they can't pinpoint because of the Fidelius Charm will raise too many red flags. We need to use an intermediary."

"How about Remus?" Edward suggested. "We can trust him, can't we?"

"Moony?" Sirius said with a smile. "Of course we can. We'll just floo him, get him over here, explain what's going on, and then use him to get to McLaggen." Without waiting for either Harry or Edward to either endorse the idea or object to it, the animagus tossed some floo powder into the fireplace and called out, "Remus Lupin!"

A few seconds later, the embers in the fireplace shifted and the sleepy visage of Remus Lupin appeared. "Paddy?" he questioned as he became coherent. "What the devil is going on? Moody is in a right state, Headmaster Dumbledore has run back to the ICW to do whatever it is he's been doing the last couple of months, and-"

"It's a very long story, Moony," Sirius interrupted. "Best get yourself over here so that we can explain."

"Over there?" Remus asked. "And here I was under the impression that we were all banned."

"What?" Sirius asked in surprise. "I would never ban you, old friend. We just tossed Dumbledore out is all. As I said a minute ago, it's a long story. Just come over."

"Alright, alright," Remus said. "Stand back."

The flames rose up and bathed the room in emerald light before spitting Lupin out into the dining room. He took a moment shake a bit of soot off of his clothes before greeting Edward, Harry, and Sirius. "I hope you three have a good explanation for this hullabaloo. Moody says you've invited a bunch of people into the house and split from the Order."

"That's not exactly what happened," Sirius said. He flinched a little under the intense and unbelieving stare his old friend was giving him and looked to the vampires for assistance.

"Sirius invited a few other members of my family—sorta like cousins, really. That's what really had Moody's panties in a bunch," Harry said, borrowing one of Emmett's cruder expressions. "Then Snape got pissy because we rescued Ollivander from Malfoy Manor."

"Malfoy Manor?" Remus asked in surprise. "Please tell me you aren't behind that mess."

"We are," Edward said unapologetically. "We went there and picked a fight with Bellatrix and her husband, but we didn't kill them. Bellatrix killed Rodolphus with a misplaced curse and then committed suicide when she thought we were going to capture and interrogate her."

Remus wiped his face with his hands for a moment. "Alright, and what about letting these 'family members' into the house? How did you even manage that?"

"I nicked the parchment that Dumbledore used to let McLaggen in," Sirius answered.

Harry could see the cogs in Remus's mind working. "Before we go any further, I have to ask: what was your endgame?"

"Our 'endgame?'" Harry asked.

"Sirius nicked the parchment from the headmaster. You all went on some sort of raid of the Malfoy estate. There had to be a reason for all of this."

"Always the smart one, Moony," Sirius said in an attempt to flatter the werewolf.

"Which is why you won't distract me."

"Bellatrix had something in her vault that we need," Harry told Remus. "We planned to use Narcissa to get the item. She was going to trade the item to us and free Snape from the Unbreakable Vow in return for our protection for her and her son. We had the parchment so that we could stash them here."

"So you didn't kill Bellatrix, but you meant to," Remus said miserably. "That's how you planned to use Narcissa to get into the vault: through inheritance. And it was how you were going to weaken the Unbreakable Vow enough that Narcissa could just renounce it."

"Yes, we were," Harry answered his former professor evenly. "That item has now been seized by the Ministry. It is imperative that we retrieve it before Voldemort or one of his followers can get it back. The entire war may depend on it."

"Surely you're exaggerating."

"No, I'm not," Harry said. He needed to convince Remus of the gravity of the situation. He hadn't revealed to any of the wizards the true nature of the Cup yet, not even Sirius. But it seemed to be the best way to convince the werewolf to help. "The item is the Cup of Hufflepuff . . . And Voldemort has turned it into a Horcrux."

Remus was an expert at Defense Against the Dark Arts and he recognized the term, even if he'd only read a few vague references to the item before. Sirius, on the other hand, was part of an exceptionally demented family and knew fathoms of information about Horcruxes.

"Merlin's beard!" Sirius said aghast. "You told me it was a magical artifact, but you never said that it held part of the bastard's soul!"

"That's why it is so important we get to it," Edward said. "As long as it is intact, Voldemort cannot die."

The werewolf seemed to flounder for a moment; however, he found his resolve quickly enough. "Whatever it is that you need, I'll do it."

Sirius smiled broadly as he told his fellow Marauder of their plan to use Cormac McLaggen to get the Cup. Remus was skeptical about whether or not it would work, but agreed to go along with it. A few minutes later, the werewolf was flooing back to his home with the fake Horcrux tucked under his arm.

"Now it's up to Remus," Harry said quietly as he watched the man leave.

"We have to trust that he'll be able to convince McLaggen to help us," was all Edward could think of to say. He knew how much Harry hated being left behind in these sorts of situations, but there was no other choice. The Cup of Hufflepuff was hidden away in the bowels of the Ministry of Magic, where no vampire would ever be able to get to it.

Lupin returned not twenty minutes after he left. "He'll do it," Remus said breathlessly as he exited the floo. "He insisted that he be the one to give the Cup to Harry after he retrieved it, though."

"It'll make a better story that way," Edward said with an exasperated sigh.

"Now, while I have your attention, why don't you tell me exactly what happened here last night that caused Dumbledore to practically flee the country?"

"Who fled the country?" a new voice asked. Harry didn't need to turn his head to know that it was Jacob Black. The shapeshifter yawned loudly before settling himself at the table.

"Jacob, this is Remus Lupin. Remus, this is Jacob," Harry introduced.

"The werewolf?" Jacob asked as he perked up in his seat.

"Yes," Remus replied awkwardly.

"That's so cool. I'm a werewolf too," the alpha said. "Well, kinda."

"Jacob is a different breed of werewolf," Edward explained. "His transformations are significantly more controlled. Rather than being tied to the lunar cycle, his form is dominated by his emotional state."

The vampire's explanation wasn't a complete lie. Jacob and his packmates all identified themselves as werewolves and their transformations were tied to the their emotions—anger, in particular. But, although they called themselves werewolves, they weren't. They were shapeshifters. It was just as likely that they could have turned into ravens or bears as it was that they turned into wolves. Edward still wondered if they were fixed in their transformations, or if they turned into wolves because of the deeply engrained stories of being descended from wolves that their people spoke of.

"Dumbledore and I had a row," Harry answered Remus's question once the introductions were over. "He knows the name of the wizard that provided Voldemort with the information that caused him to target my parents in the first place and he won't tell me. I offered to trade the information about why we went after Lestrange in return for the name, but he refused. We got into a argument over his not trusting me."

The werewolf looked very disturbed by the notion of Dumbledore protecting someone involved in Lily and James Potter's deaths. His eyes narrowed as he considered the implications of what he'd been told. "Do you know what the information that was passed along was? If we know that, we might be able to figure out who it is on our own."

Harry looked to his husband for a moment, unsure if he should tell them. He could tell that Edward was leaving the decision entirely in his hands. "I know the information, and I'll tell you if you want to know. But you should know beforehand that it might put you in extreme danger," the younger vampire informed them.

"Any more danger than we are in by knowing that Voldemort has a Horcrux of all things sitting in the Ministry of Magic?" Sirius asked with a lazy smirk.

"Point taken. Basically, there was a prophecy about someone who could kill Voldemort. Based on the wording, the prophecy refers to me. Someone made the prophecy to Professor Dumbledore in the Hog's Head, but someone else overheard part of it and ran off to tell Voldemort about it. Once Voldemort put together whom the prophecy referred to, he came for me."

"Why would Dumbledore be in the Hog's Head with a seer in the first place?" Sirius asked in confusion.

"Not sure," Harry answered with shrug. "Though that is the place he used for his meetings with us before bringing us here. It could be that he just uses it for all of his out-of-Hogwarts meetings."

The group analyzed what they knew for some time. They came up with a few different theories about who the eavesdropper could be. The most obvious answer was Severus Snape. He was a Death Eater that Dumbledore trusted implicitly for unknown reasons. He was loyal to Voldemort for some time before changing sides; it was entirely possible that he was loyal when he reported the prophecy and changed sides sometime afterwards and that Dumbledore was protecting the wizard because of his services.

Harry was almost convinced that the snarky potions professor was the guilty party when Remus pointed out a major inconsistency in the theory: Dumbledore had said repeatedly that the eavesdropper was repentant for what he'd done. Severus Snape hated the Potters and often spoke glowingly of James Potter's demise. Although it was possible that Dumbledore lied about that detail, his voice was full of conviction when he made the statements the night before.

Harry and Sirius still felt that Snape was the most likely candidate, but Harry wasn't quite as positive as his godfather. A few other possibilities were kicked around, like Mundugus Fletcher, but no one that the group could think of fit the few facts that they had as well as Snape.

It was nearly noon when the fireplace came to life once more and spit Cormac McLaggen out into the dining room. Clutched in his hands was the Cup.

"You did it!" Harry said enthusiastically as he approached the Gryffindor. He was intentionally laying it on a bit thick to stroke the older boy's ego.

"It was tricky and a lesser wizard might not have been able to pull it off," McLaggen said in a manner that would have made Gilderoy Lockhart proud, "but I did it. Just had to tell old Zigby in Wizengamot Administrative Services that my uncle was interested in buying an item from the vault in an upcoming estate sale and he let me have a private look."

"Excellent job," Sirius said clapping the boy on the back as Harry took the Cup away from Cormac.

"So, what's the big deal with this old urn, anyway?"

Harry silently cursed himself for having not prepared an answer for that question in advance. Why hadn't he seen it coming?

"Voldemort gave the item to his most faithful follower because there is a clue somewhere on it that leads to a great treasure. He plans to use that treasure pay for mercenaries to topple the Ministry," Edward lied smoothly. "By making sure he doesn't have this piece of the treasure map, you've saved countless lives."

The way McLaggen puffed out his chest so soon after having flinched at the mention of the name 'Voldemort' almost made Harry laugh, but he restrained himself.

"Now," Sirius said as he clapped the wiry-haired Ministry employee on the back once more, "you have to be getting back to work before anyone misses you."

McLaggen looked like he was going to protest, but Sirius pushed him back into the floo, tossed in some powder, and shouted "Ministry of Magic!" before the boy could get a word out. Clearly, he wanted to secure his share of the fictitious treasure.

"So, is it the real one? Or did he just give us back our fake?" Sirius asked.

"Only one way to find out," Harry said as he bit the lip of the cup.

After a few seconds, a distant cry could be heard as another piece of Voldemort's soul was destroyed.


	68. Chapter 68

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 68: Draco's Story**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Sixty-Seven – Draco's Story**

Harry bit the inside of his mouth for the umpteenth time in the past hour in order to resist going downstairs and putting Draco Malfoy through a wall. The Slytherin had been brought to 12 Grimmauld Place by Sirius and Narcissa less than twelve hours after the Cup of Hufflepuff had been destroyed and the blond hadn't stopped complaining or attempting to bait Harry in the week since. The vampire thought back to when he'd supported Narcissa Malfoy's decision to pull Draco from Hogwarts early so that he wouldn't be harmed by any of Voldemort's supporters if her role in Bellatrix's murder was discovered. If he had a Time Turner, Harry would go back in time and kick himself in the shin. Very, very hard.

First, Draco complained that his mother was standing in the way of his obtaining eternal glory through serving the Dark Lord. After that and the initial shock over seeing a vampiric version of his old nemesis, he'd made several lame attempts at mocking Harry for his 'death' and being a 'giant poofster'—insults he'd only stopped making openly after Emmett cornered him and made several threats regarding things he could do to Draco without causing the Unbreakable Vow between Sirius and Narcissa to trigger. Then he whined about being unfairly put upon by the whole mess and missing the Hogwarts Halloween Feast. Finally, he'd settled for nit-picking every little detail of Sirius's house.

While the Cullens, the shapeshifters, Sirius, and Remus had all agreed that they should still give the wizard shelter, there was some contention about whether they should still make Narcissa Malfoy pay for that refuge by foreswearing her hold on the Unbreakable Vow with Severus Snape. Sirius had argued rather adamantly that they should let the Vow stand in order to make Snape suffer. The animagus was still very convinced that Snape was the eavesdropper from the Hog's Head. Jasper, by comparison, suggested using the Vow as a means of forcing Dumbledore to reveal the name of the eavesdropper from the Hog's Head.

Reluctantly, Harry had insisted that they go ahead and have Narcissa release the Vow. Although he agreed that Snape was the most likely culprit, they only had strong suspicions, not actual evidence. After the way Sirius was imprisoned without a trial, the young vampire was unwilling to allow Snape to be condemned without first meeting some basic burden of proof. He didn't like taking the high road in all this; he was fairly certain that Snape was guilty and wanted the man to pay. But the risk of being wrong was just too terrible.

"How did you not kill him at school?" Jacob asked as he entered the sitting room where Edward, Harry, and Carlisle were sitting. "He's actually demanding that Leah and I go out and buy him a bunch of crud for his room," he informed them, as if their enhanced hearing had not detected every word of Draco Malfoy's latest tirade.

"That's Malfoy for you," Harry said as he began to reread one of the legends regarding the Diadem of Ravenclaw for what must have been the hundredth time.

"Maybe it's time to start interrogating Malfoy about what his plan was for the headmaster? That cabinet that Bellatrix was talking about with Rodolphus may be important to the safety of the Hogwarts students," Carlisle wondered aloud. "It's clear that the idea that he was going to reveal the details on his own just isn't panning out."

"Maybe," Harry muttered. "I didn't expect him to tell us anything out of the goodness of his heart. But I did think that he'd find it hard to resist bragging about how close he supposedly was to killing one of the greatest wizards of the modern age." He gave the illustration of what one person believed the Diadem of Ravenclaw to look like one last glance before placing the book open-faced on his lap.

"So how do we play this?" Edward asked his husband as he set his own book aside. "Do we just ask him? Threaten him?"

"That won't work with Malfoy. He won't tell us without some sort of motivation and he knows that Sirius has to protect him because of the Vow. Emmett may be able to threaten to dangle him out of an upstairs window until he wets himself, but I'm doubtful that that level of embarrassment is enough for him to divulge his secrets. We have to play to his self-interest; he won't tell us what he knows for any other reason."

"A bribe?" Jake asked.

"How do you bribe someone that wealthy? Between the Malfoy fortune and what he and his mother will eventually inherit from Lestrange, I don't know that we can come up with a sum of money sufficient to motivate the boy," Carlisle said.

"What about playing to his interest in his own survival," Edward suggested. "We can't threaten him directly, but he has to know that if Voldemort wins this war, he's either going to have to remain hidden for the rest of his life or die. It's in his best interest that he tell us anything that could help us to defeat Voldemort."

"That . . ." Edward's young mate started slowly, "might just work." He then turned to Jacob. "Do you mind calling the twerp up here?"

"He's about the same size as you," Jacob said with a smirk as he made for the stairs. "I don't think you can call him a 'twerp.'"

Harry glowered as he watched the shapeshifter alpha leave. He pointedly ignored Carlisle's smirk and Edward's soft chuckle.

A few minutes later, the three vampires could hear Draco stomping his way up the stairs like a petulant child. "You don't summon me like a servant, you bloodsucking pauper," the blond spat as he stopped at the threshold of the room. Malfoy looked thoroughly indignant at having to even be in the same room with the shapeshifter and the three vampires, let alone having been summoned by them.

"And yet, here you are," Jake said with a grin. The larger boy forcibly nudged the wizard into the room.

Harry was certain that his old schoolmate was about to make a break for it, so opted to draw him into the necessary discussion before he got the chance. "You contacted your aunt, Bellatrix, about a cabinet that was important in your plans for taking out Dumbledore. Tell us about it."

"First off, _leech_, when you speak of my aunt, you should show her more respect. She was a great witch, unlike the filthy Mudlood that bore you into this world. Second, I'm not going to tell you anything."

The vampire had spent a week dealing with Draco Malfoy, and really would have liked to have repressed his anger. Unfortunately, he revealed to Malfoy just how much the wizard's insult about his deceased mother got to him by putting too much pressure on the armrest of his chair and breaking it off. The piece of wood clattered to the floor as a smirk formed on the wizard's pale face.

"I'm surprised. I didn't know that a corpse had any nerves left to hit," Draco said with immense satisfaction.

Harry wanted to retort with either a witty remark about Draco's confinement, a harsh insult about his dead father, or a threat of physical violence, but he restrained himself. He kept focused on the fact that, for the time being, they needed Malfoy's cooperation, and retaliation, especially by him, would hinder their efforts.

Emmett, who followed Draco and Jacob up the stairs, was slightly less restrained after the insult to his brother-in-law's family and so incorporated a few choice words into his demand. "Okay you little shit, let's break this down into something that even a moron like you can understand. If Voldemort wins this war, you get to pick between spending the rest of your life in the house you haven't stopped bitching about since you stepped foot in it or you get to die by what I can only guess will be some unimaginably painful method. You want a chance to ever leave this house again without dying? You answer the question. Got it?"

Harry and Edward exchanged surprised glances. Their surprise didn't originate from the fact that Emmett knew what they planned; they both knew that Emmett and the rest of the vampires in the house would have heard their plan to get Draco Malfoy to reveal his secrets. The surprise came from the hateful tone of Emmett's voice. He was usually so laid back; he hadn't gone off on anyone like that since Mike Newton tried to give Harry and Edward a hard time for coming out together.

The blond wizard looked conflicted for a moment as he decided between being obstinate because of Emmett's insults or compliant because of his interest in his own survival. "You want to know about the Vanishing Cabinet?" Draco asked when his survival interest won out.

"'Vanishing Cabinet.' Why does that sound familiar?" Harry asked aloud.

"It should, Potter," Draco said, smugly superior in having the inside scoop. "It's because of you that I had to spend so much time trying to fix it. Peeves dropped the damned thing from the ceiling of the room above Filch's office to get you out of trouble, or so the Weazelby twins bragged before shoving Montague into it the year before last."

Harry briefly considered correcting Malfoy about the 'Weazelby twins,' but decided to just ignore the matter. He obviously used to the term in an intentional attempt to try and goad Harry further.

"Ruffians, the both of them. Couldn't accept a simple punishment for breaking the rules," Draco continued, more to himself than to the room at large. "After Montague got tossed through the Vanishing Cabinet, he was stuck in a sort of in-between place, like the space you travel through when you Apparate. He could hear what was going on at Hogwarts some of the time and what was happening at a shop the rest of the time. After he managed to Apparate himself to safety, he told the story about what had happened to the rest of Slytherin House.

"Everyone else thought it was just some great story, but I realized that he'd stumbled on something important. Especially after the Dark Lord gave me my mission. I knew that it might be the key to the old Muggle-loving fool's undoing. I realized that the Vanishing Cabinet was a doorway of some kind, but Montague got stuck because one end was broken. I used what Montague said about what he heard while in the in-between space to figure out that the matching Vanishing Cabinet was in Borgin and Burkes. I made sure Borgin wouldn't sell the one he had and then moved the other one at Hogwarts from the first floor to the room just across from the tapestry of Barnaby the Barmy on the seventh floor so that I could repair it."

"Wait," Harry interrupted. His human memories were a bit fuzzy, but he remembered the basic layout of Hogwarts fairly well because of all of the time he'd spent wandering its halls late at night under his father's old invisibility cloak. "You mean the tapestry with the trolls in tutus? There's no room there."

"That's where you're wrong, Potter," Draco replied, his arrogant superiority showing even more on his face. Momentarily, his eyes dipped down to the book in Harry's lap, but they didn't linger their too long. "There is a secret room there. It's been used by students for centuries; maybe as long as the school has existed. It only appears under certain circumstances. I found it by accident when I was looking for a place that I could stash the Vanishing Cabinet and repair it without being seen."

"So did you manage to repair it?" Carlisle asked.

"Not completely," the wizard answered. "It was so badly damaged that I doubted I'd be able to finish it this school year at all, but I wrote a letter to my aunt about it and she sent off a quick reply that told me who to contact in Knockturn Alley: an old Death Eater sympathizer named Jeroth who specializes in magical oddities. I got all of the information I needed to fix it, but I only managed to complete about half of the work."

"Does anyone else know about the Vanishing Cabinet?" Edward asked urgently.

"Of course," Draco Malfoy replied, his eyes once again darting down to the book in Harry's lap. "My aunt and uncle knew about it, but they're dead now so that doesn't really matter. My mother knows about it. And Borgin and Jeroth, though Jeroth doesn't know about the matching one in Knockturn Alley. Or what room the one is Hogwarts is hidden in. My aunt planned to recruit other Death Eaters to help in the eventual attack, but I don't know if she actually contacted anyone or not," the wizard answered thoughtfully. "Speaking of my aunt, how is it that you know that I wrote to her about the Vanishing Cabinet?"

"We overheard you aunt talk about it," Harry said evenly.

"What about Crabbe and Goyle?" the young vampire pressed.

"They know that I was in the hidden room working on seomthing, but I never told them what it was. They just took shifts hiding outside of the room under a disguise; they were my look-outs."

"So, to sum things up," Emmett said lazily from the entrance to the drawing room, "there's no problem. It isn't fixed, so anyone that tries to go through it will just get stuck like that kid Montague did. Right?"

"That's how things were when Malfoy left Hogwarts a week ago," Harry said. "Borgin used to buy all of Lucius Malfoy's Dark Arts stuff that he didn't want to get caught with. There's no way he won't sell the secret of the Vanishing Cabinet. He can probably get a fair number of galleons for that sort of information and he has no reason not to tell anyone about it. He could sell the secret to a Death Eater with a kid at Hogwarts, the kid could fix it, and then we have a whole world of trouble."

"He won't tell," Draco said stubbornly. "He's too afraid of what my family . . ." he trailed off somberly. Clearly, he realized that the threat of retribution from the Malfoy family meant next to nothing at the moment. The most dangerous members of his family—his father and his aunt—were dead and he'd fled Hogwarts to escape the Dark Lord's wrath.

"We have to destroy the one that Borgin has," Harry said. "It's the only way to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands."

"Or else we could get it from Borgin and keep it here," Jacob suggested. "Have our own little way in and out of Hogwarts."

"It's too dangerous," Carlisle protested. "Even if it were fixed, then someone on the other side could use it to gain access to this house. We could inadvertently provide admittance to people we don't want invading Sirius's home."

"Why do you keep glancing at that book," Edward finally demanded of Draco when the wizard's eyes drifted down to the book in Harry's lap for a third time.

The wizard looked momentarily shocked at having been caught. "It's just interesting, is all."

"Why do you find it so interesting?" the bronze-haired vampire pressed.

"I think I've seen that before," the blond said as he pointed to the illustration in the book.

"This?" Harry questioned as he held up the book and pointed to the illustration of the Diadem of Ravenclaw.

"Yes," the wizard answered. "Well, maybe not that one specifically. But there was one like it in the Room of Requirement—the hidden room that I started to fix the Vanishing Cabinet in. I would use it for target practice when I got frustrated with my work. It was smashing because it just wouldn't break no matter how powerful a spell I threw at it or how many times I hexed it."

Jacob, Emmett, Carlisle, Edward, and Harry all began to exchange glances. How could they have been so lucky?

"It seems that we won't be destroying the Vanishing Cabinet after all," Edward said softly.


	69. Chapter 69

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 69: Harry's Gambit**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Sixty-Eight – Harry's Gambit**

Ron and Hermione made their way through the streets of Hogsmeade, totally unaware that a pair of red-tinged amber eyes was watching their movements with rapt attention. The young vampire waited until his once-best friends moved within a few meters of the edge of the tree line to gain their attention. Gently, the vampire tossed a pebble he'd collected before climbing the tree towards the pair; it landed at their feet.

The wizard and the witch overcame their momentary shock at having a rock lobbed in their direction and began to search the area for its point of origin. It didn't take long for the bushy-haired witch to find Harry sitting in the tree. She made to call out to him, but stopped herself when she realized that calling out 'Harry!' would probably be a very bad thing. Instead, she settled for pulling her confused boyfriend into the forest.

Harry smirked at the way Hermine clung to Ron's hand; he'd always believed that they were sweet on one another. The vampire stepped off of the branch and allowed gravity to do its work. The redhead and his girlfriend looked like they were going to scream when their once-best friend plummeted to the ground.

"Don't ever do that again," Hermione said in irritation when the vampire landed unharmed on the soft forest floor.

"I'm a great deal more resilient to these sorts of things than I used to be," Harry said as the witch gave him a hug. "Basilisk would probably break its jaw trying to bite me now."

Ron reached out and clasped Harry's shoulder for a moment. "Blimey, mate. I bet McGonagall's chess set wouldn't stand a chance against you now. You could just smash your way through it with without getting a scratch."

"True enough. Do you mind missing part of your day? There's something going on that I need to talk to you about."

"Is this about your row with Dumbledore?" the freckled boy asked. "Because everyone's heard about that by now. Can't blame you for being angry if Dumbledore is protecting the bloke that sent V-V-Voldemort after your parents."

"Ron," Hermione chastised. "Whether the headmaster is right or wrong about protecting whomever it is, we all need to work together to defeat Voldemort. We may not like some of our allies . . ." she trailed off.

"You know it was probably Snape, right?" Ron asked Harry. "Who else would be a right enough bastard towards your family and still get Dumbledore's protection."

"That's the working theory," Harry confirmed. "But we have no proof. Anyway, there's a great deal more going on that you need to be made aware of," the vampire said as he looked beyond his two companions. "But we can't talk this close to Hogsmeade."

"Lead the way," Ron said as he motioned to the forest.

Harry smirked for a moment. "I've got a better idea." He put his hands between the pair of young lovers to separate them and then took one in each arm. "Hold on tight." A heartbeat later, Harry was racing through the treetops with the two Gryffindors along for the ride. Ron was whooping in excitement while Hermione screamed in terror.

"Harry James Potter, put us down this instant!" the witch cried.

Satisfied that they were well beyond the area that any Hogwarts student or employee would be venturing on a Hogsmeade Saturday, Harry landed on the ground as gently as he could and released the pair.

Ron wobbled a little bit before landing hard on the ground. "Brilliant!"

Hermione, however, was not amused. She wobbled for a moment, but didn't fall. After a few seconds of steadying herself, the witch began to repeatedly smack Harry on the arm and babble nonsensically at him.

"That has to be like hitting a brick wall," the immortal commented. "If you keep it up, you'll break something. And I don't want that because you'll blame it on me."

The mortal stopped her assault and settled for leveling her best glare at the vampire. "Was all this really necessary? We could have just taken a few steps into the forest and gotten out of sight."

"I'm about to share with you some of the most top-secret goings-on in the entire war," Harry answered softly. "We can't take the slightest risk of being overheard."

"So there's more going on than just your falling out with Dumbledore?" the wizard asked.

"A lot more," Harry confirmed. "You've heard about Bellatrix Lestrange's death."

"Yeah we have," Ron said a bit uncertainly. Realization dawned on his face. "Wicked."

"We went to Malfoy Manor to take care of her for two reasons. One was to get something from her vault and the other was to help release Snape from the Unbreakable Vow. Narcissa Malfoy has jumped ship and taken Draco with her. With Bellatrix dead, Narcissa inherited everything and the Vow was weakened enough that she could just foreswear it."

"So you killed Bellatrix as part of a more elaborate plan," Hermione said evenly. There wasn't the disapproval in her voice that Harry had expected.

"Didn't turn out that way; she was the only one that did any killing. Crazy witch accidentally killed her husband when trying to kill one of my friends and then killed herself before she could be taken captive. If she'd known we were actually there to kill her, I'm sure she'd have managed to do more damage to us by going down fighting," Harry explained. "Things got a little bit messed up at that point when the Ministry stuck its nose into the situation and we had to use Cormac McLaggen to actually get the item that was originally in Bellatrix's vault."

"You relied on McLaggen for something important?" the witch asked in surprise. "What was this item?"

"The Cup of Hufflepuff."

"My goodness," Hermione said breathlessly. "That's a priceless artifact. I can't imagine why Bellatrix Lestrange of all people would have a Hufflepuff heirloom, though."

"It's worthless now; I destroyed it. The Cup was a Horcrux," Harry stated. When it was apparent that neither of the Gryffindors knew what he was talking about, he elaborated. "Tom Riddle's diary from second year was a Horcrux, too. It's an item that a wizard stores part of his soul in. In this case, the wizard was Voldemort. The Horcrux acts like an anchor; he can't really die while the Horcrux is intact because his soul is tethered to this world. He put a piece of his soul into the Cup and then hid it away in Lestrange's vault for safekeeping."

"That's how he survived the rebounded Avada Kedavra," Hermione concluded with a bit of excitement. Her enthusiasm was understandablel; how Lord Voldemort had been able to recover from such an incident had been the subject of much debate among academics in recent months. "He got hit with the curse, but couldn't die because the Horcrux was still intact. His soul was tethered to this world. With is body destroyed, he just wandered as a wraith until he was able to get a new body."

"But you destroyed it, so that means he can die now, right?" Ron asked.

"He made more than one. There are only two left and one of them is in Hogwarts right now. I think."

"You think?" the redhead questioned.

"I don't know for sure," the immortal admitted. "For at least a few of his Horcruxes, Voldemort tried to use objects that made good trophies and were related to the four founders of Hogwarts. A ring that belonged to the last descendants of Slytherin, a locket that actually belonged to Salazar Slytherin, and the Cup of Hufflepuff for sure. We think that the Diadem of Ravenclaw is the next Horcrux."

"And it's at Hogwarts?" Hermione asked dubiously. "I can't imagine that something like that would go unnoticed. Hundreds of wizards have searched the castle from top to bottom looking for hidden treasures."

"Malfoy is the one the found it accidentally. There is a hidden room on the seventh floor-"

"The Room of Requirement," Ron interrupted.

"How do you know about that?" a flabbergasted vampire asked.

"We used it in fifth year as a sorta clubhouse to meet and work against the Inquisitorial Squad."

"I'm totally lost now," Harry said in confusion. "What is 'the Inquisitorial Squad?'"

"The Ministry made a power play during our fifth year," Hermione began. "After you didn't show up to the disciplinary hearing, you were expelled from Hogwarts _in absentia_. Fudge figured that you'd been effectively silenced because you couldn't show your face in any British magical community without having your wand confiscated and snapped. After that, he moved on to deal with the headmaster for insisting that Voldemort had returned. He started off by appointing a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. It was Fudge's own undersecretary, Delores Umbridge. A truly awful woman."

"And corrupt," Harry interjected. "She took a bribe from Mundungus a while back."

"Yes, well, throughout the year, Umbridge managed to gain more and more power. Things came to a head when the headmaster was off trying to search for you one night. Malfoy and the other members of the Slytherin quidditch team picked a fight with the Gryffindor team. There were several injuries. When he came back, the headmaster couldn't confess to why he was gone at the time because public sentiment was so against you. As a result, his power was severely limited; Umbridge was made 'High Inquisitor' so that she could 'address Hogwarts' falling standards.' She created the Inquisitorial Squad out of Pureblood students, like Draco Malfoy, to serve as her private police force within Hogwarts as she went about trying to subvert the headmaster further. Their authority even superseded that of the prefects."

Ron took over at that point. "We decided to start meeting in secret to try and figure out ways to work against Malfoy and his lot. Dobby found us the perfect spot in the Room of Requirement. It was great, until we were busted for having an illegal club."

"Wow," was all Harry could say for a moment. He had no idea that his disappearance had caused this sort of damage to Hogwarts. "So what happened?"

Ron continued the story. "Umbridge got caught doing a lot of shifty stuff and it was the lowest set of O.W.L.'s for her subject ever. The governors made a big push to take the school back from the Ministry's direct control because they were being made a laughing stock. Umbridge got sacked and Dumbledore found a DADA teacher of his own, so the Ministry couldn't pick the old bat's replacement. It was just a little while after that when everyone found out that you were telling the truth the whole time, so the Ministry backed off."

"Well, uh, I guess it's good that you already know where the Room of Requirement is and how to access it. Because that's instrumental to my plan."

"Which is?" Hermione asked.

"I need to back up a bit. I told you that Malfoy and his mum jumped boat. Well, they're hiding out at headquarters."

"What?" Ron demanded. "How could you trust that slimy snake to be inside headquarters?"

"I don't trust him at all, Ron," Harry said with a smirk.

"Mate, you understand that that makes no sense, right?" Ronald Weasley looked positively mutinous at Harry for a long moment before shaking his head in disgust.

"Go on, Harry," Hermione Granger urged.

"I'm giving him a shot at changing his ways; if he doesn't want to be a murderer, then he shouldn't be forced into it. I'm going to hope for the best, but I'm trying to set things up in case he turns out to be the ferret we all think he is. Malfoy's plan to kill Dumbledore involved using the Vanishing Cabinet. There are actually two of them and they act like a doorway to one another. One is in Borgin and Burke's and the other is in the Room of Requirement with the Diadem. The Vanishing Cabinet was damaged years ago and so doesn't work right anymore. Malfoy was trying to fix it so that he could let a bunch of Death Eaters into Hogwarts."

"That little bastard," Ron muttered.

"He was convinced not to go through with it by his mother because he knows he can't succeed in actually killing Dumbledore. Even if he did, Voldemort would probably just give him some new suicide mission. And, on top of everything else, I don't think he _wants_ to be a murderer. He was only ever gung ho about the mission because it was what his father was tasked with when he got killed. That having been said, we're not taking any chances.

"Malfoy handed over the notes he had on how to repair the Vanishing Cabinet. He thinks that we're sending Remus to Hogwarts to fix it so that I can travel through to Hogwarts and get the Diadem—though he has no idea the Diadem's importance. The actual plan is very different," Harry said as he produced a small stack of parchment from his jacket pocket. "My plan is to have the smartest witch in all of Hogwarts _almost_ fix the cabinet while her brave boyfriend smuggles the Diadem out of the castle to me through the Womping Willow's secret passage."

"Why do you want 'Mione to only 'almost fix' the Vanishing Cabinet?" Ron asked.

"It's a trap," Hermione deduced. "He said he doesn't trust Malfoy. Just in case Malfoy is trying to trick Harry and the others into revealing information he can use to save his own skin or he is actually planning to try and assassinate the headmaster, Harry wants things set up so that Malfoy can't succeed. By leaving the Vanishing Cabinet broken, I'm guessing that any Death Eaters that go through from Borgin and Burke's will get stuck like Montague did."

"That's one facet of it," Harry confirmed. "I want it mostly, but not entirely, repaired so that we can finish repairs in a hurry and use it if there is an emergency. If Malfoy or someone else tries to send a bunch of Death Eaters through, they'll get stuck if the Cabinet isn't fixed. They can get out like Montague did, but they'll be mentally damaged for a while like he was; totally unsuitable for a fight. But that is only one facet of it. The bigger part of the plan involves what happens if Malfoy tries to tell Voldemort about our going after the Diadem.

"If Malfoy reveals that tidbit, then Voldemort will have no choice but to collect his Horcruxes to try and keep them from me. If he tries to use the Vanishing Cabinet to enter Hogwarts to beat us to the Diadem, then he may be weakened enough by the broken connection that we'll have no problem beating him. If he doesn't go for the Diadem, then we can still set a trap at one of the other Horcrux's hiding place and trap him. If we haven't found the last Horcrux by then, we will disarm him and imprison him until we can sever his last tie to this world. If we have found the last one by the time we spring the trap, then we go ahead and finish him off once and for all."

"But how will you know if and when Malfoy tries to inform on you? And what happens if he doesn't do it?" Hermione questioned.

"At least one of my family is near headquarters at all times. We're intercepting every owl in and out and Sirius has set it up so that neither Malfoy can make firecalls. If Draco Malfoy makes a move, we'll know. And since we're intercepting the letters, we can make sure he doesn't tell anyone about my status as a vampire. Also, if he doesn't try to inform Voldemort or his followers about what is going on, then after we have the last Horcrux, we'll convince him to do it so that we can trap Voldemort. His defeat is in Malfoy's best interest, after all."

"It's risky, particularly because you're trying to prepare for so many eventualities at once," the witch said. "But it just might work. I have to admit, your plans have gotten a bit more sophisticated since you were a first year."

"Wish I could take all of the credit for it, but my husband is the real brains of the operation."

"Speaking of Edward, where is he?" Hermione asked. "If Ron and I don't get to spend any time with him, how ever will we get the opportunity to regale him with embarrassing stories from your younger days?"

The rest of the day was much more relaxed and carefree. Harry was able to fill Hermione in on his and Edward's romance. Ron, however, was much more interested in stories about Victoria and her army. Harry returned his friends to Hogsmeade shortly before sunset. After they left, Harry waited until darkness had settled over him before leaving. He would return the following day to retrieve the Diadem of Ravenclaw from Ronald; it was far too risky for the vampire to enter Hogwarts' grounds.

It was almost midnight by the time Harry returned to his hotel. Edward was waiting for him on the edge of the bed that they shared. There was a long, dark box sitting next to the older vampire.

"What's that?" Harry questioned his mate.

"A present, I believe."

"You believe?"

"It isn't from me," Edward said casually. "Rosalie intercepted an owl trying to take it to Grimmauld Place. The paper it was in was addressed to you. Remus checked it out and has confirmed that it's nothing dangerous."

Harry picked up the long, thin box. He easily broke the twine that secured the lid on and slid the top off. The primary contents of the box were obscured by a silky piece of cloth and a note. The vampire plucked the piece of parchment from inside the box and read it aloud.

"'Thank you again for your heroics; I am forever in your debt. I hope you will find this to be a suitable replacement. Thanks to a generous phoenix, this wand is a third brother. I expect more great things from you in the future.'"

Excitement filled the young vampire as he pulled back the cloth to reveal an eleven-inch holly wand that matched his old one perfectly. He picked the delicate piece of wood up and held it out in front of him. A warmth spread through his arm as a smile spread across his face. He gave the wand a good wave and laughed heartily as red and gold sparks shot out of the end.

For the first time in a very long while, he felt like a wizard.


	70. Chapter 70

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 70: Voldemort's Secret**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Sixty-Nine – Voldemort's Secret**

"Do you like it as well as your old wand?" Sirius asked as he watched his godson moving the holly stick through the air.

"They're identical," Harry replied. "Same wood, same length, same core. But . . . there is a certain bond I felt with my old wand that this one just doesn't have yet. Given enough time, I'm sure it will be just the same."

"Maybe," the animagus replied a little uncertainly. "The wand picks the wizard, though. Just because they are the same composition doesn't mean that they are the same wands or that you'll ever wield them exactly the same way."

Harry made a Jacob-style grunt as a response. He had been in Sirius's bedroom—the only room in 12 Grimmauld Place that not even Draco Malfoy would dare enter without an invitation—for several hours as he practiced some of the old spells that he knew and one or two other spells that Sirius taught him.

The vampire was immensely pleased that he still had his magic after becoming an immortal, but he wasn't sure how much it would improve the situation. There was no way he could learn enough magic before the new year to make much difference in a duel against Lord Voldemort. Although he could memorize every wand movement and incantation in every book of magic that Sirius owned in record time, there was a very big difference between knowing the spells in theory and in practice. He felt that his best bet was to use his vampiric speed to enhance the number of spells he could cast during a duel and then rely on his strength as a trump card.

The vampire-wizard thought that Sirius's bedroom was smashing. It was decorated in Gryffindor colors—red and gold—and the walls were covered with old posters of Muggle motorcycles and girls in bikinis. There were so many posters and Gryffindor banners hanging about that the green and silver silken wallpaper that coated the walls throughout the house was barely visible in Sirius's bedroom. The most fantastic decoration in the room, however, was a small, moving photograph that contained smiling teenage versions of James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew.

The immortal was about to levitate a small bauble from the nightstand when he heard Remus and Edward approaching. "Door," he announced to his godfather.

Sirius walked over to the door to his room and admitted Remus and Edward before either had a chance to knock. "That's getting a bit old, Harry," the animagus said.

"Not my fault your hearing is going," the younger vampire joked with a satisfied smile. "What's up?"

"I've just come from the Burrow. I have some new information on Voldemort that I thought I'd share with you," the werewolf answered.

Harry ceased his playing around with his new wand and turned his attention to his former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. "Great, but you should make it pretty quick. I was just about to leave to meet Ron and get the you-know-what."

"Of course," the shaggy wizard said. "That team of Aurors that the Ministry sent to France a few weeks back have had their deployment time extended. They aren't investigating a single murder like we originally thought, but a string of murders. There have been over two dozen Muggles murdered by what they believe to be magical means in the last three months. The average is just over two murders each week."

"Have they figured out a pattern in the murders?" Edward asked.

"Yes. All of the murdered Muggles have been physicians of a very specific sort. Arthur said that they were 'uncoolagents' but Tonks referred to them as-"

"Oncologists," Harry completed softly as he stared at Remus in shock.

"Yes," the werewolf confirmed as his brow furrowed. "How did you know?"

"That can't be a coincidence," Edward said as he looked at the younger vampire in concern. Cold dread seemed to clench his heart as he considered the possible reasons why Voldemort would be murdering doctors of the sort that had once treated his husband.

"Either of you care to let us in on the secret?" Sirius asked as he looked back and forth between his godson and his godson's husband.

"We will," Harry answered uncertainly. "But I think we need to get the rest of the family together for this."

It took a little over a half hour for the Cullen family, the two shapeshifters, and the two mortal wizards to gather together in the dining room. Sirius and Remus were looking at Harry in concern. The way he and his mate had reacted to the information regarding Voldemort's targets was most unnerving to the pair.

"You sure the Malfoys haven't done something magical to the room so that they can spy on us?" Jasper questioned as he sat down next to his wife who, in turn, shot her husband a glare.

There were very mixed feelings amongst the group about how to react to Draco Malfoy. Some, like Jacob Black, thought he was a 'spoiled little shit' who would sell them all out in a heartbeat if given the opportunity and proper incentive. Others, like Alice, thought that the wizard showed surprising strength of character by turning his back on all that his father had taught him to believe in and, therefore, deserved more kindness than most of her family had been showing him. Sirius, who saw Draco as some of only legitimate family he had left, was firmly on the side that believed in giving him a chance while Remus, who had seen Draco consistently play the part of bully and bigot during his year as DADA professor, thought that they should be kind yet still guarded.

For Harry, the matter was significantly more complicated. His vision of Draco Malfoy was clouded by four years of animosity—memories of which affected the way his husband, Edward, saw the wizard as well. But, at the same time, he couldn't help but see the similarities between their situations. Draco was ordered by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore or else his family would suffer. Harry was ordered by the Volturi to kill Voldemort or else his family would suffer. They were essentially in the same boat.

Still, every time the vampire looked at the blond's sneering face, he remembered the way he had mocked the murder of Cedric Diggory on the train leaving Hogwarts at the end of his fourth year. He would hold out hope that Draco would not take the opportunity to betray them all, but he wouldn't risk his family foolishly. As the saying went, he'd hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

"Yes," Sirius said distractedly. "I've put up a few privacy charms. It hasn't stopped Draco from trying to find a way to listen in, but he won't succeed."

"We should get started then," Harry said. "I'm running late as it is."

"Right," the bronze-haired vampire said to his husband before looking at his father. "The Order has confirmed that Voldemort is murdering doctors throughout Europe. And not just any doctors but-"

"Oncologists," Carlisle completed the sentence.

"How does everyone keep guessing that?" the animagus asked in consternation.

"The Muggle news programs have been reporting the deaths for weeks. There are rumors of a serial killer, but this is the first time that anyone has brought up the possibility of magical involvement," Carlisle said. "Are you sure that Voldemort is the culprit?"

"Not one-hundred percent positive, but positive enough. Why else would the Ministry be involved?" Harry said. "And we don't think it could be a coincidence that Voldemort would just happen to single out oncologists to murder."

"Is someone going to explain to me what the Blazes is going on?" Sirius said gruffly in undisguised frustration. "I'm sick and tired of you skating around this topic. What about the deaths of these doctors could possibly be a coincidence? It's not like Voldemort has done something like this before."

"Oncologists treat cancer, Sirius. It is a type of Muggle disease." Harry said. He hesitated for several seconds before saying anything else. "I nearly died from it."

"What?" Sirius asked in surprise.

"I was diagnosed less than a year after I left Britain. I had surgery and some other treatments that were pretty intense. I almost died from it about a year ago, but I managed to pull through and the disease went into remission."

"And you don't have it anymore because, as a vampire, you are immune to such things," Remus finished quietly. "Is that why you . . ." he trailed off.

"No," Harry said firmly. He was clearly insulted by the insinuation that he'd become a vampire just to avoid dying of his illness. "I was healthy when I made the decision to marry Edward and become a vampire. I made those choices because I love him and want to spend eternity with him; I would have made the same decisions even if I'd never gotten sick." Under the table, the dark-haired immortal entwined his fingers with those of his mate.

"So why would Voldemort go after cancer doctors?" Emmett mused aloud. "Did he find out about Harry's past with it and decide to try and find a way to exploit it?"

"No, that's not it at all. He has it," Carlisle concluded. "It's the only thing that makes sense: Voldemort has the disease. If you recall, he used Harry's blood and parts of both his father and Peter Pettigrew to craft his current body."

"I don't get it," Harry confessed. "I didn't think blood transfusions could spread cancer."

"Most doctors would agree that they can't. But that isn't what Voldemort did, now is it? He used three genetic samples as the basis for constructing a new body. Voldemort is partially a clone; physically speaking, he is an amalgamation of the three people from whom his body was created. He's like a child with three parents. His body inherited your genetic predisposition to your illness in the same way a child sometimes inherits that predisposition from a parent," Carlisle explained.

"Not every child whose parents have cancer will get it," Alice explained to the mortal wizards, "but they have an increased chance of getting it. It appears that luck wasn't on Voldemort's side."

"So let's assume he does have cancer for a minute. What do you think he's doing by going after these doctors?" Leah asked. "Is he seeking treatment from them and then killing them when they don't give him the answers he wants?"

"Perhaps," the vampiric physician said.

"They give him bad news, fail to make progress, he might be letting his frustrations get the better of him, or maybe he's just trying to keep them quiet after they've served their purposes," Esme said. "Didn't Snape say that none of Voldemort's followers had seen him for quite some time?"

"Yes," Remus confirmed. "I believe Snape said that Nott was the only one to have seen him for months."

"Like we can believe Snivellus," Sirius muttered darkly. The animagus had embraced a foul mood from the moment he realized Harry had concealed the fact that he'd almost died from him. He was wondering why, if he was near death, he hadn't reached out to friends and family in Britain.

"You've told us that Voldemort is a Pureblood supremacist. Wouldn't it hurt his image to his followers if he was seen suffering from a Muggle illness, let alone going to Muggle doctors for help?" Esme asked the room's occupants.

"It would," the werewolf confirmed. "While some of his followers that were with him when he went to school know that he is a Half-blood, most others have been conned into believing that he is a Pureblood. The knowledge that he was suffering, perhaps dying, of a Muggle disease would be quite the blow to his campaign. And if he succumbed to the disease, then certainly the loss of his current body would be devastating to his efforts."

"And a new body not made out of Harry's blood wouldn't be able to get around the protection his mother gave him when she died," Sirius added quietly.

"So what do we do with this knowledge?" Rosalie asked.

"We use it to break him," Harry said darkly. "If he has the same form of cancer that I had, and he's known about it for months, then he's probably pretty sick by now. Who knows how long he was showing symptoms before he thought of checking for Muggle illnesses. When the time comes, this will make it just that much easier to end his miserable life." He was silent for a moment before adding, "When I was sick, I thought that I'd never wish that kind of suffering on anyone. Looks like I was wrong."

"Don't forget that the treatments might be working," Alice noted. "If his disease does go into remission like yours did, then all this does is buy us time to find the final Horcrux."

"The next question," Remus posed, "is whether we keep this information to ourselves or not."

"Who would we tell?" Jake asked.

"He wants to know whether we should let Headmaster Dumbledore in on this or not," Edward clarified. "And I don't see a need. The only piece of information that we have that they do not is that Harry had cancer when he was a mortal. While telling them that will permit them to reason that Voldemort also has that disease and is seeking treatment. And, let's face it, they can reason that from the information they already have."

After the group agreed to keep the secret of Voldemort's illness to themselves, Harry found himself recounting his experience with cancer to his godfather and Remus Lupin in great detail. They each interrupted several times to thank Jacob and Leah for taking such good care of Harry during his illness. Edward joined in on their thanks; he was immensely grateful that they had taken care of his love during the period when he'd been, as Emmett put it, 'a total jackass.'

By the time the somewhat impromptu meeting was completed, Harry had to ask Remus to Apparate both Edward and him to Hogsmeade so that they wouldn't miss their meeting with Ron Weasley.

The trio arrived at the edge of the village not long after the sunset. By Harry's watch, he had twenty minutes to get to the Shrieking Shack to meet his Gryffindor friend. It was plenty of time to make the walk, so there was no need to run.

After a silent and uneventful stroll, the two immortals and the werewolf were waiting amidst the dusty and broken furniture of the Shrieking Shack. There were no working windows or doors into the structure, so the two vampires had to use their immense strength to make one from an obstructed window on the first floor. It wasn't very long after the trio settled themselves down that a panel on the floor opened up, startling Remus a bit. Ronald Weasley's head popped out of the hole a second later.

"That bloody tree is a menace," he complained as he made his way out of the passage. "It nearly took my head off."

Ron was, of course, referring to the Whomping Willow. The violent tree had been planted during Remus Lupin's first year at Hogwarts as a means of hiding the secret passage from the castle grounds to the Shrieking Shack. The werewolf used the passage to come to the seclusion of the Shack so that he could transform into a werewolf on the nights of the full moon without being seen. The tree ensured that no student would accidentally stumble upon the werewolf. The plan worked, except for one unfortunate incident in which Severus Snape was tricked into entering the passageway by Sirius Black.

"If it had taken your head off, at least you'd be able to join the Headless Hunt," Harry pointed out dryly. "Try to look at the bright side."

"Yeah, but Nearly Headless Nick would never forgive me," Ron said with a grin. He slung his old school knapsack from his shoulder and pulled out the item he'd been asked to acquire.

The Diadem of Ravenclaw, if that was what the item truly was, was an old, tarnished tiara. Inside of the rim was etched, 'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.'

"It looks like a couple of the pictures from the books Dumbledore gave us. And it has the correct inscription," Edward said. "Only one way to be sure, though."

Harry nodded his head before sinking his teeth into the object. He only allowed his jaw remain clamped on the object for the briefest of moments. From where Harry's teeth broke the edges of the Diadem and exposed the inner areas of the delicate metal to his corrosive venom, a black tarry substance began to bubble up. The Diadem shook in Harry's hand for a moment before falling to bits, leaving only a few tarnished pieces of metal and some of the black gel on the dirty floor of the Shrieking Shack. The gel, however, slowly folded in on itself until it was totally gone. As with the Locket of Slytherin and the Cup of Hufflepuff, Harry heard a distant sound that was like a man wailing into the wind.

"Yep," the darker-haired vampire said with a nod. "It was the real thing. And leaves us with just one more to go."

"Damn," Ron said as he watched the scene in amazement. "I can't believe you survived kissing Edward with a mouth like that when you were human."

"Love bites were quite the danger," Harry said with a smile.

Edward snickered at the banter before catching a new smell. "We have company," he announced. As soon as the vampires caught the scent, they were able to identify it and the slow, even footsteps coming from the tunnel.

The four figures looked to the trap door where Albus Dumbledore emerged. The old wizard regarded the four figures one at a time. "It appears that I have missed something rather important," he said as he pulled himself into the room.

"Nothing much. Just catching up with an old friend," Harry lied.

"Yes, well. I wonder if the four of you might accompany me back to the castle. There is something I wish to discuss with you, Harry," the old wizard said.

"I think I made it pretty clear the last time we talked that we were finished."

The headmaster hesitated and licked his dry, chapped lips. "I will tell you what you want to know, Harry. But please know this before anything else, I did not protect the eavesdropper for the reasons you think."

"What are you talking about?" Harry demanded in exasperation. "Speak plainly for once in your life."

"You see, Harry. _I_ am the reason your parents are dead."


	71. Chapter 71

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 71: Dumbledore's Regrets**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Seventy – Dumbledore's Regrets**

The headmaster's words shocked Harry. For several moments, the young vampire could only stare at the old man, unable to say anything at all. How, he wondered, could Albus Dumbledore be responsible for the deaths of his parents?

"Will you allow me to tell you my story, Harry?" the old wizard asked.

"Yes," Harry answered without hesitation. "But I can't go to Hogwarts."

"If it is a matter of your appearance, I can cast a simple spell to make you appear as a mortal to all who see you."

The wizard wasn't concerned about that at the moment. He was worried about the scent of his singer driving him to commit murder. "No, I just haven't eaten in a while. I don't think I can be near the students."

"Very well then," the headmaster answered. "I can tell my story to you here. But I would ask that Misters Weasley and Lupin step out."

Harry looked to the werewolf and his once-best friend and motioned for them to leave. They complied, though somewhat grudgingly. As Ron left, Harry could hear him speaking to Remus in a hushed tone. "I swear I didn't see him follow me. The only person who I ran into at all was some Slytherin firstie. And she ran off as soon as she saw me."

Once the pair had left, the headmaster silently cast several spells on the room. "To protect against eavesdroppers. They have, as you are sadly aware, caused great misfortune in the past," the wizard explained before conjuring a trio of comfy-looking chairs. Although the headmaster sat in one of the chairs, both Harry and Edward preferred to remain standing.

"I have rehearsed this conversation in my head over and over again, and I have yet to find a way to adequately explain myself. So do forgive me if my thoughts are somewhat disjointed."

"Just get started," Harry snapped. "How is it that _you_ are responsible for the deaths of my parents?"

"I'm sorry, but it is a bit of a long story, so my folly may not become immediately apparent. It begins approximately a decade before you were born when your mother was but a young girl. While experimenting with her burgeoning magical powers, she was spied upon by a boy who lived not too far from her own home. The boy, the son of a witch and a Muggle, was most excited about making a friend his own age with magical prowess. Your mother and he became fast friends. In time, he grew to love and cherish your mother more than anything else in this world."

"My father?" Harry asked.

"No," the headmaster said solemnly. "Severus Snape."

"What?" the younger vampire asked in shock.

"For quite some time before Hogwarts and until the end of their fifth year, your mother and Severus were quite close. Though their friendship was not known by the student body at large for obvious reasons, several of the staff who were aware of the friendship pointed to it as an example of how a Gryffindor and a Slytherin could overcome their house rivalry and be the best of friends." The headmaster steepled his fingers and sighed heavily. "They may have even remained friends, had it not been for my own failings.

"You see, Harry, I played favorites with my students, even back then. Your father grew into a great man, but as a child, he was a terrible bully. He was not unlike Draco Malfoy or your own cousin, Dudley, in that regard. He hexed many students for no reason other than his own boredom or the boredom of his friends. Severus, in particular, suffered greatly as a child at the hands of James Potter and Sirius Black."

"But my father saved his life!" Harry argued fiercely.

"Your father pulled Severus out of a trap that your godfather, Sirius, placed for him. It was a noble thing to do, risking himself in that manner. But just because your father acted to prevent Sirius from essentially murdering Severus Snape does not diminish the fact that I allowed him to become a great and terrible force within the walls of my school. Even in that event you have just mentioned, do you not see my own favoritism at work? Sirius nearly killed Severus with his so-called prank and was totally unrepentant about it, yet I didn't expel him as I should have. Sirius, like your father, was one of my favored Gryffindors, and so I did not punish him for his transgression.

"Part of the reason why Severus was so keen on finding out Remus Lupin's secret that night was because of an event that occurred three months earlier, at the end of the previous school year. After sitting for one of their their O.W.L.'s, your father and his friends decided to pick on Severus in front of a large number of the student body. For Sirius's amusement, your father hung Severus in the air and tortured him. Severus was humiliated and, in his resulting rage, used a very unkind word to your mother when she tried to render him aid."

"Mudblood," Harry concluded.

Dumbledore nodded his head in confirmation. "Yes. That was the final grain of sand that tipped the scales of their relationship. The things that Severus had retreated to in order to survive my school—the Dark Arts and relationships with the Pureblood elite—were abhorrent to your mother. It was apparent to her that day that the boy she knew and cared for was gone. He had been drowned in a sea of anger and hatred.

"What Lily did not understand, though, was that the death of her childhood friend was my doing. That anger and hatred was nurtured by me. By letting your father and his friends run wild through the school, I thought that I was encouraging students to make Hogwarts fun. To make it into a refuge for people who, like Sirius, were terribly unhappy at home. And, to a certain extent, I succeeded. But just as far as I succeeded, I also failed. My failings as a headmaster allowed my school to become a place of torment for other students, including those like Severus who were just as unhappy and unloved at home as your godfather.

"I saw what was happening to him, but did nothing to prevent it. In fact, I exacerbated the situation further by appointing your father Head Boy over many more qualified candidates. Why your father? As I said, I favored him and his Gryffindor friends. And although he'd stopped bullying most of his fellow students, he still bullied Severus at every opportunity. Perhaps it was because he'd realized the past friendship between Lily and his enemy; I'm not sure. Despite the manner in which your father went out of his way to torture a fellow student, I turned a blind eye and instead lavished praise upon him for his other successes. I tacitly approved Severus's torment. I have failed so very many students in my time at Hogwarts, Harry. But perhaps none as greatly as Severus Snape.

"By the time Severus left Hogwarts, he didn't have a true friend in the world. He only had himself and the likes of Lucius Malfoy—people who saw his brilliant mind as a potential asset to their master's cause. And when the time came that he overheard a piece of information that would win him the respect and adoration of those people, he seized upon it."

"So it _was_ Snape," Harry said as his suspicion was finally confirmed.

"Yes, Harry. Snape followed me to the Hog's Head that night and listened from the doorway as I interviewed Sibyll Trelawney for the vacant Divination post. He had no idea that he would overhear the prophecy that would speak of his master's future; Voldemort had ordered him to obtain a post at Hogwarts and he sought to listen to one of my interviews in order to better prepare himself. But he _did_ hear a portion of the prophecy and raced back to Voldemort to tell him of what he had heard." The headmaster allowed silence fill the room for several moments as words sank into Harry's mind. "When Voldemort began to zero-in on your parents, Severus realized what he'd done and warned me. He begged me to hide Lily away so that no harm would befall her. He was the one that caused Voldemort to search for the one who might destroy him, but, if it were not for Pettigrew, it is likely that he would have successfully alleviated the damage of his mistake by warning me.

"We thought we'd succeeded. A year passed and you and your parents were still alive. Severus, to atone for his misdeeds, had become my spy. And the information that he passed along saved many lives. At Voldemort's instruction, he became one of my professors. Though he applied for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position, I thought it too dangerous, both because of the temptation it would present and because of the jinx that Voldemort had placed on the post so that no instructor would be allowed the job for more than one year. I gave him the position of Potions instructor instead because I knew he excelled in that subject and because I felt that he'd earned his redemption.

"And then that terrible night happened. Your parents were murdered, Voldemort's power was broken, and Severus lost the only person he'd ever cared for. After much work, I pulled him from his misery and convinced him to dedicate his life to the cause of defeating Voldemort when he returned. To protecting Lily's son in his years at Hogwarts."

"But he was terrible to me," Harry protested.

"Yes, he was. But he also protected you. For instance, you may recall that he did his best to cast the counter-jinx to stop Voldemort from knocking you off of your broom in your first year."

Grudgingly, Harry had to admit that Snape had come to his defense on occasion.

"And how could one not expect Severus to take an instant dislike to you. You, Harry, who represent everything he has lost. A child of the woman he loved and his tormentor. A child that looked at him day in and day out with Lily's eyes behind James Potter's face. A child who I favored just as I favored his father. You may not have been the bully that your father was, Harry, but you must admit that I should have tossed you from my school on more than one occasion for your actions.

"I do not excuse any of Severus's actions. He chose to be Death Eater. He chose to inform Voldemort of the prophecy. He chose to belittle and berate you for four years. You have every right to hate him and think me a monster for shielding him from the Wizengamot. But to at least some extent, every terrible action he has taken against you can be traced back to me," the old wizard said in agony. "I did not hide the identity of the eavesdropper from you because I did not trust you, Harry. On the contrary, I know that you have grown into a truly remarkable young man who would never kill Severus Snape for his transgressions, especially after giving me your word that you would not. I did not tell you because of my own shame at the role I have played in all of this. I robbed you of your childhood by placing at the Durlseys and I withheld essential knowledge about your destiny from you for years. But before all of that, I helped rob you of your parents."

It was almost too much information for Harry to assimilate at once. He knew his father was not the kindest boy in Hogwarts, but to hear the man that had always spoken of him glowingly call him a bully on par with Dudley Dursley and Draco Malfoy was terrible. Harry remembered being chased through the streets by Dudley's gang when they played 'Harry Hunting.' And then he placed what he imagined a young Severus Snape to look like in his place and the young Marauders he'd seen in Sirius's photo in the place of Dudley and his friends. It was awful.

The vampire turned away from the headmaster and placed his hands on his hips. Edward came over to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I can't forgive him," Harry said. "I hear what you're saying, but I can't overlook it. He was bullied as a child. So what? So was I, as you well know. He doesn't win a 'get out of jail free' card just because of a crappy childhood. He has to take responsibility for his actions. You've protected him from Azkaban, but he should at least have to suffer from the shame and loathing that will come from everyone knowing what he did."

"I understand, Harry. And I understand if you can never forgive me for the role I have played, either. But you were right before: I owed you the truth. The entire truth. And now, there is nothing left for me to tell you. Unless, of course, you'd like to hear the origin of your invisibility cloak." The last was said with unexpected humor.

Harry didn't say anything as he heard the chair beneath Albus Dumbledore shift. He turned to find the wizard standing up and magically ridding the room of the chairs he had conjured.

"So, what now?" Harry asked. "Where do we go from here?"

"'We?'" the headmaster asked. "I do not believe there is a need for a 'we' anymore. I am an old man, Harry. An old, foolish man who has made many mistakes his life. Many more than you could possibly imagine. I will provide you any assistance that I can, but I believe that the future is in your hands from here on out. I shall assume, based on Mr. McLaggen's story, that you have disposed of the Cup of Hufflepuff. And, from what I saw Mr. Weasley to be carrying, the Diadem of Ravenclaw has met the same fate. There is only one Horcrux remaining, and I am afraid I have no more advice to give about the subject."

Before anyone could say anything else, a silver patronus in the form of a lynx crashed through the Shack's ceiling. The deep voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt emanated from the Patronus's mouth a second after it arrived. "The Ministry is under attack. Floo is down and Apparition is blocked. Voldemort has returned."

Both of the vampires could hear the beating of the old wizard's heart rapidly accelerate. The old wizard was as much at a loss for words as Harry was when Dumbledore had first taken blame for the death of the young immortal's parents. After struggling for a moment, he spoke. "I must leave you now, Harry."

"I'm coming," the young vampire said with resolve.

"But he still has a Horcrux out there," the old wizard protested. "He cannot be killed. If you go now, you risk losing whatever advantage keeping your vampiric nature a secret may afford you in the final conflict with Voldemort."

"We're just guessing that he intentionally split his soul seven ways," Harry argued back. "And even if there is still one out there, tearing his soul from his body again may provide us the time we need to find it before he can get back on his feet."

The headmaster didn't spend another second considering his options; he just released the privacy charms from the Shrieking Shack and called to Remus and Ron. He informed them of the message he had received from Kingsley and then made for the castle. As the five individuals made their way swiftly back to Hogwarts, the headmaster began to fire off Patronus Charms with messages to alert the members of the Order of the Phoenix.

"How do you make them send messages?" the vampire asked as he watched the old wizard fire several phoenix patroni towards Hogwarts, presumably to alert the staff.

"Keep the happy thought, the message, and the receiver's general location in your mind simultaneously when you cast the spell. It's tricky," Remus answered for Dumbledore.

Such multitasking may be difficult for a mortal, but the mind of a vampire works very differently and Harry had no problem at all. He brandished his new wand and shouted, "_Expecto Patronum_!" A silver stag raced off to Jasper Cullen to alert the rest of the family of what was happening and instructing them to go to 12 Grimmauld Place.

"Impressive," Edward said softly from Harry's right as the vampire-wizard pocketed his wand once more.

"Headmaster," the younger vampire began forcefully. When the old wizard spared Harry a moment of attention as he hurried on his way, the immortal continued, "You mentioned a spell earlier that would give me the appearance of being human. Please cast it on Edward and me now. I don't want us to add to an already panicky situation."

"Are you sure you wish to enter the castle? You were hesitant before," the bearded wizard asked.

"I will manage," Harry replied. "Somehow," he muttered quietly as an afterthought.

Albus Dumbledore flicked his wand towards the vampires. Though Harry didn't feel any different, he noticed Edward's change in appearance immediately. His usually pale skin had a touch of pink to it and his eyes were as green as Harry's once were. Edward looked like a very attractive human; probably a slightly leaner and more chiseled version of what of he had looked like the better part of a century before.

"How do I look?" Harry asked his husband.

"Human," Edward answered with a smirk. "Normal skin tone, green eyes, and a scar on your forehead."

In no time at all, the group was entering the castle. Harry was immediately assaulted by the tempting scent of his singer. He wanted so badly to track the witch or wizard down and feast, but he resisted. The emergency at hand, his husband's calming presence, and his own resolve kept him in check. That didn't stop Harry from noticing that the scent grew stronger the closer they got to the headmaster's office.

"Licorice!" the headmaster shouted as he raced towards the gargoyle that guarded his office with the speed of a fit man one-fifth of his age. The gargoyle leapt to its side to allow the headmaster and his companions access to the spiral escalator that led to the headmaster's sanctuary. The office, which was lined with all manner of ancient tomes and unusual artifacts, was crammed full of members of the staff. Everyone, from Minerva McGonagall to Argus Filch to Rubeus Hagrid, was present.

Harry's senses were very alert in the room as he focused on the one, unexpected individual whose blood sang to him like no other living person he'd encountered: Poppy Pomfrey.

He managed to break his fixation on the healer and focus on the matters at hand, but it was very taxing to do so. Harry kept telling himself that Edward had resisted the call of his singer for weeks when he sat next to Bella Swan in biology. By Merlin, he could spend five minutes resisting the urge to kill the woman who'd spent four years patching him back together after his various misadventures.

Once he pulled his attention from the grey-haired hospital ward matron, Harry was able to focus on the other individuals present. Truly, every staff member was present, including Severus Snape. He wanted very badly to inflict a horrible injury on the man, perhaps a worse injury than he would inflict on Pomfrey if he gave in to his urge to feed, but he held himself to the spot he was standing in. Like it or not, the man's assistance may be necessary in the hours to come.

After the headmaster and Harry dealt with the initial shock of most of the staff members to seeing the supposedly missing Harry Potter rush into the headmaster's office—particularly Hagrid's sobbing reaction—Dumbledore began to assess the situation.

"The entire area is blocked off, headmaster," Professor Flitwick said in his squeaky voice. "As near as we can tell, they've downed the entire Floo Network and cast Anti-Apparition Jinx's over all of central London. We'll have to Apparate in several kilometers away and then travel by broom."

"And Obliviate half of London?" Professor Burbage, the Muggle Studies professor asked. "We can't fly that far through the city in that strong of numbers without being seen. Not nearly enough of us can cast a proper Disillusionment Charm."

"How close is the Ministry to Diagon Alley?" Edward asked.

"Only a couple of blocks, why?" the headmaster asked.

Ron, Harry, Remus, and Edward answered simultaneously. "The Vanishing Cabinet."

"That old thing? How could it possibly help us now?" Professor McGonagall asked in confusion.

All four began to answer once again, but Harry spoke above them and kept speaking until the other three dropped out. "The Vanishing Cabinet acts as a doorway to a sister cabinet in Borgin and Burkes. We can use the Vanishing Cabinet here to get to Diagon Alley."

"Where is it?" Dumbledore asked in a rushed voice.

"The Room of Requirement."

Several of the staff members looked so confused by the name of the room that Harry gave them that they looked like they'd been hit with a Confudus Charm. Harry recounted where the room was and how to access it at the fastest speed at which normal humans could understand his words.

"Is the Cabinet fixed though?" McGonagall asked. "It was quite damaged by that stunt Peeves pulled."

Harry looked to Ron for the answer.

"Oh, now someone else can speak? Sheesh. It is fixed. Well, mostly."

"Mostly?" Professor Sprout questioned.

"It was intentionally left partially damaged in case someone from the outside tried to use it to break into the school," Harry explained.

"Hermione repaired it all except for some jinx that was interfering with the way people reappear on this end," Ron added. "She figured out the counter, but left the jinx on like Harry wanted."

"Mr. Weasley," the headmaster began, "go retrieve Ms. Granger, travel with her to this 'Room of Requirement,' and fix the Vanishing Cabinet. Post-haste. We must leave to aid the Ministry as soon as possible. Voldemort must be stopped from gaining access to the magics and resources of the Ministry at all costs."

Ron nodded his head and then raced from his room.

Once Ron was gone, the headmaster began to give marching orders to the faculty members present. Filch was to seal the castle, Professors Sinistra and Sprout were to prepare the castle's defenses in the event that there was an attack there, and Madam Pomfrey was sent to prepare the hospital ward for casualties. Despite his early protestations about being a useless old man, Dumbledore was proving to be quite useful in this time of crisis.

Harry excused himself from the room momentarily and cast a second Patronus Charm to alert his family and friends of the most recent developments. Though Grimmauld Place was a fair distance from Diagon Alley and the Ministry, they still needed to know where to head if they decided to join in the fight. Not that he had the slightest bit of doubt about whether or not they would join.

After several minutes of marshalling his forces, the old headmaster's jaw set itself. "It is time," he said as he walked around his elaborately carved desk and began to march in the direction of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. He didn't hesitate or slow down in the least; he walked ahead knowing full well that he may be marching to the battle that could spell ultimate defeat for his side of the war. If the Ministry fell, they may all be doomed.

Along the way to the seventh floor corridor that contained the entrance to the Room of Requirement, the vampires could hear the frantic beating of their comrades' hearts. From the booming sound of Hagrid's heart to the almost hummingbird sound of Professor Flitwick's, all of the warriors knew that they were marching off to war.

The group followed Harry's instructions perfectly. They walked by the blank space of wall opposite the tapestry three times, thinking the entire time about needing a room where things could be hidden. After the third pass, a door appeared in a usually blank space of wall. Once inside, the group found a veritable city of hidden items. There were great towering walls of every kind of imaginable contraband.

"Ron!" Harry called out. In the distance, a set of red sparks flew into the air. They were the same sort of sparks that Harry was taught to use if he got into trouble during the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament and wished to forfeit.

The band of warriors rushed to the area that they had just seen the sparks fly from and found Ronald Weasley with a very tired-looking Hermione Granger. They were standing in front of what Harry knew to be the Vanishing Cabinet. The bushy-haired witch did a double-take when she saw Harry in his human disguise.

"It's finished," she said as he waved her wand in the direction of the Vanishing Cabinet one last time.

Harry stared at the large, dark artifact with momentary dread. He turned from it and embraced his husband very tightly. All thoughts of being angry at Dumbledore, about Snape's hand in his parents' deaths, and about whether Malfoy might have caused the attack on the Ministry by informing Voldemort's forces of Harry's interest in the Diadem fled from his mind. He focused for several seconds on his first kiss with Edward, their wedding, their wedding night, and the weeks spent at Isle Esme.

"Ready?" he asked Edward.

"Yes," the older vampire replied.

Hand-in-hand, Edward and Harry opened and entered the Vanishing Cabinet.

**A/N:** Why _Poppy Pomfrey_? For starters, I knew from the beginning that it would be (1) a staff member and (2) someone that Harry would _never_ be attracted to. Although many people equate the draw of a singer's blood with physical attraction, I don't. How does blood smelling so good that you want to slaughter the person whose veins it is running in equate to love or even lust? It is fun when there is attraction and even love between a vampire and his/her singer because it is a complication to the relationship. But I read the _Twilight_ books as only indicating that the blood just smells delicious to that vampire and anything else, like love, is based on other factors. If a singer was automatically a vampire's soulmate, imagine poor Emmett; he killed two of his own singers because of the desire for their blood. If you count Rosalie, he'd have three soulmates, two of which he'd murdered. That would have to suck.

So, anyway, I looked through the staff and picked Poppy. Why her and not another staff member? Because I love her for some inexplicable reason, she's an unexpected choice, and I like the irony of Harry desperately wanting to slaughter a healer.


	72. Chapter 72

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 72: The Ministry of Magic**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Seventy-One – The Ministry of Magic**

Harry and Edward were the first to emerge from the Vanishing Cabinet. Borgin and Burkes was vaguely familiar to the younger vampire; he'd visited the shop by accident when he was twelve years old while attempting to floo from the Burrow to Diagon Alley. He'd actually hidden from Lucius and Draco Malfoy in the exact same cabinet he just emerged from. Had he not left the door slightly ajar, he most definitely would have found himself traveling to the matching Vanishing Cabinet in Hogwarts.

The shop was dark, but that presented no problem for the vampires. They quickly moved from the Vanishing Cabinet's entrance so as to allow Headmaster Dumbledore and the other Hogwarts professors, Remus, Ron, and Hermione to follow them.

As the professors arrived two at a time, Harry made his way past the various dodgy-looking items—piles upon piles of old books, boxes, skulls, potions of every imaginable color, and jewelry that was bound to be cursed—in the store to its front entrance. He was about to force the door open when the old headmaster appeared at his side.

"Best if I open it," the silver-haired wizard said. "It is bound to have enchantments cast upon it to discourage the usual vagabonds and ruffians who inhabit Knockturn Alley from attempting anything felonious on these premises."

Harry allowed Dumbledore to work his magic on the door and open it silently. The old man then led the assembled group into Knockturn Alley.

It was a very short distance from Knockturn Alley to Diagon Alley, but the large group was by no means unnoticed as it made the jaunt down the way's broken cobblestones and past its flickering street lamps. There were various wizards and witches milling about the darkened alley; some appeared to be vendors while others appeared to be simple bystanders. There was no doubt in Harry's mind that at least some of the spectators were Death Eaters who were watching for any sign of aid traveling to the Ministry. Their arrival would undoubtedly be expected.

After rounding the corner to enter Diagon Alley, the group made haste towards the portal that led to the Leaky Cauldron. The much more respectable alley was in utter chaos as people raced back and forth to spread the latest bit of gossip regarding the goings-on at the Ministry.

"-say that Scrimgeour is already dead."

"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is leading-"

"-trolls! No fooling!"

"-walked right into a meeting of the department heads and began to curse-"

Harry wondered how many, if any, of the rumors were true. As the different wizards and witches caught sight of Albus Dumbledore leading a small army through the alleyway, the whispers took on a different tone; they actually became more depressed. They weren't talking like people who were watching soldiers going off to turn the tide of war, but like people watching a group of prisoners being taken to the gallows or towards the dementors to be administered the Kiss. It seemed like the citizens of the Wizarding community had given up hope already.

"Professor!" a somewhat familiar voice called. Harry turned to see who was speaking and was surprised to find Oliver Wood making his way through the crowd. The well-built Scot was accompanied by Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell.

"Oliver!" Harry shouted as he pushed his way by Remus to get to his old friend and teammate.

The Scot's eyes bulged momentarily. "Harry," he greeted warmly as he and his friends each began pulling the boy into hugs. "I thought you were missing."

"Not missing so much as off living my own life," Harry said as he was pulled into Katie Bell's arms.

The vampire was able to hear the closest wizards and witches begin to mutter about the return of the Boy-Who-Lived to their community. A return that was just in time for him to die, several wailed.

"We were at the Leaky Cauldron having a few pints when we heard that the Ministry was being attacked? Is it true?" Alicia asked as he looked back and forth between Harry and Albus Dumbledore.

The various denizens of Diagon Alley were looking at Harry. Some of them looked like they actually wanted him to remain hidden in the Alley for his own safety. Others, to Harry's disgust, looked as if his sudden arrival gave them more hope than the arrival of the Hogwarts staff. It seemed to the vampire that no one had quite gotten over the myth of the great and powerful 'Boy-Who-Lived.'

A plan began to hatch in Harry's mind in that moment as he realized that he was being handed the perfect opportunity to get what he needed most: reinforcements. Between the Anti-Apparition Jinx and the downing of the Floo Network, it would be extremely difficult to get a sufficient number of fighters into the Ministry before Voldemort assumed control its powerful and ancient magics. But here Harry stood, surrounded by an Alley full of adult wizards.

"Yes," the Boy-Who-Lived said in firm voice that was loud enough to be heard for a ways. "At this moment, Voldemort and his servants are attacking the Ministry of Magic." He turned to look around at all of the expectant faces in the ever-growing crowd. "I look at the people in Diagon Alley tonight and I can't help but ask: what the hell are they doing?"

The crowd looked on at their celebrity in confusion. "They are standing around gossiping while a lunatic seizes control of their government." Harry shifted himself so that he was talking directly to the crowd instead of Oliver. "A creature that thinks that every Muggle, Muggleborn, and Half-blood in the world should either be made a slave or exterminated is in the process of making himself into your lord and master, and you stand around doing nothing about it.

"Think for a moment about your time at Hogwarts or whatever school you went to. Think about all of your classmates and friends that had some bit of non-wizard blood in them. They are the people that Voldemort wants to destroy first. You are all standing about doing nothing while he puts the finishing touches on his grand plan for the future: genocide. Those friends and classmates are the people that he intends to torture, maim, and ultimately murder. Will you stand by when he comes for them and their children just as you stand by now and let him seize power?" Harry demanded incredulously at the crowd, part of which looked ashamed while others—the vast majority, it appeared—looked indignant at being spoken to in such a manner.

"I left his world and never wanted to come back," the young man confessed. "I thought that the things going on over here weren't my problem. I was far, far away. What could Voldemort possibly do that would affect me where I had built my new life. Let someone else do all the fighting." He allowed a moment for his words to be absorbed by the disbelieving crowd. "It was very foolish of me. Voldemort is a threat to the entire world, magical and Muggle alike. If everyone just stands aside and lets him have his way, he'll eventually destroy everything that makes this world worth living in. It was pointless to try and stay away, because he'd come for me sooner or later. Just like he'll come for all of you sooner or later. Oh, he'll start with the Muggles and Muggleborns and Half-bloods, but he'll eventually move on to everyone else.

"Don't believe me? Then ask yourself why he had Cedric Diggory murdered. He was a seventeen-year-old _Pureblood_ wizard. He'd never done anything to antagonize Voldemort. He just happened to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Voldemort killed him just like he'll kill all the rest of you eventually, if you let him. He'll kill those with non-magical blood and then he'll kill those those that don't agree with him and then he'll kill all those that don't measure up some standard of magical strength. And in the end, he's the only one that will remain.

"You know this! You all know this to be true, but you just stand there looking towards someone else. Hoping that a dozen school teachers and a few teenagers will be enough to turn the tide of the war. That they'll make all the difference and save you. You stand there hoping someone will deem you worth saving even though you won't lift a finger in your own defense!"

Some of the faces in the crowd looked angry. Harry couldn't tell if they were angry at him or Voldemort. He hoped it was anger at the latter. "This is it, people. This is the last battle. If you don't believe that, then you're just delusional. Right now, Voldemort's forces are making their big push against the Ministry. If he wins this night, then you won't have any Aurors or Hogwarts professors or a Boy-Who-Lived to stand up for you anymore. The next time he makes a move with his Death Eaters and his dark powers, you'll be all by yourself; no one will be coming to your rescue. So you need to decide, right now in this instant whether you're going to stand around and hope for the best, or if you're going to do your part. Will you at least try to save yourselves?"

There were murmurs throughout the crowd after Harry finished speaking. For a terrible moment, Harry thought that he had failed. That no one would come to fight for their freedom and their lives. And then it began. One by one, dozens of witches and wizards began to move through the crowd towards Harry and the other fighters that had come from Hogwarts.

Dumbledore beamed down at Harry and then began the march towards to the Ministry of Magic once more. Harry was surrounded by familiar faces as he made his way: Edward, Ron, Hermione, Oliver, and a dozen other faces that he knew from his time at Hogwarts or his various trips to Diagon Alley. The force that marched towards the Ministry once numbered little more than a dozen, but now it was composed of scores. It was an army of witches and wizards that were prepared to act as one and make a last stand against Voldemort.

The army made its way through the portal at the end of Diagon Alley and into the little courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron. They then crossed through the pub—gaining another half-dozen recruits along the way—and emerged on the street outside. The headmaster then led them three more blocks to what appeared to be the entrance to an ordinary underground toilet.

"I sent word to Kingsley and Tonks to secure the entryway. With a bit of luck, we should have no difficulty gaining admittance. Just stand in a toilet and flush; you'll come out in the Grand Atrium of the Ministry," the headmaster said softly to Harry.

Dumbledore led the men down one set of stairs labeled 'Gentlemen' while Professor McGonagall led the women down a set labeled 'Ladies.'

Once inside, Harry noticed a long line of stalls, all of which appeared to be coin-operated. Before he could ask, the headmaster thrust his wand out and a blue spell slid over all of the stalls, forcing the doors open.

Harry smiled as he moved quickly through the dark-tiled room, bypassed the headmaster, and made for the first toilet. He wanted to be the first one to go in case they were walking into a firefight. His advanced speed would give him a great advantage over the other wizards and witches; his ability to avoid the spells might draw enough fire to allow the first wave to enter the fight without too much difficulty.

Edward was at Harry's side every step of the way and entered the same toilet stall as him. They held on to one another as they stepped into the toilet. Though it appeared that they were standing in ankle-deep water, they were totally dry. The pair of young lovers didn't need words; each knew how the other felt. They just reached up and pulled the lever down, literally flushing themselves into the Ministry of Magic.

After sliding down a short chute, the pair was deposited into a fireplace in the Atrium. The pair immediately had to dive out of the fireplace in order to avoid being hit with a red spell.

Once out of the entry fireplace, Harry allowed himself to observe the Atrium for the barest of seconds as he dodged a baker's dozen of spells from as many different directions; that brief second was more than enough time for a vampire to take in the battlefield. The room was long and rectangular. On Harry's side of the room was a security desk—which burst into flames as a spell slammed into it the moment Harry's eyes landed on it—and seven fireplaces, all of which now had streams of his allies arriving through them. The opposite side of the room held eight fireplaces, three of which were bricked over for some reason. Off to Harry's right on one of the two shorter sides of the rectangle was a door labeled 'Visitor's Entrance' and there were a set of golden gates hanging off of their hinges to his left. Beyond the gates, Harry could see a bank of lifts. In the center of the room were the remains of a golden fountain that appeared to have once been composed of a witch, a wizard, a house-elf, a goblin, and a hoofed creature that was probably a centaur before its top half had been blasted off.

The Atrium went up seven stories above Harry's head. Above the set of lifts, the vampire could see row upon row of windows stacked upon one another. The lifts, he deduced, led to the Ministry proper and the windows provided the various high muckety-mucks of the different departments with a view of the Atrium. Harry could see duels happening on all but the highest of floors.

The room was filled with wizards and witches tossing spells back and forth. Harry's side of the room seemed to be where the Aurors had been cornered; access to the main offices of the Ministry and the exit fireplaces were cut off by a mass of dark-clad, skull-masked Death Eaters. A pair of mountain trolls were visible near the bank of elevators—Harry assumed that it was they that had ripped open the set of golden gates and left them hanging on barely-attached bolts.

A female scream caught Harry's attention as he continued to dodge spells and distract Death Eaters from their still-arriving opposition. To his left he saw a red-haired Tonks being tortured by a squat, female Death Eater.

The vampire didn't bother with his wand, he rushed through the crowd and backhanded the Death Eater away from the female Auror. It was a rare moment when Harry could not only cut loose and use his abilities to their fullest extent, but he had to in order to help win the battle. His unrestrained strength shattered the dark witch's mask and sent her flying, bleeding and quite possibly with a broken neck, all the way over to the fountain.

Harry wanted to help Tonks to her feet, but another Death Eater took the torturer's place a second later. He drew his wand and began to duel his new opponent. The male Death Eater was vastly more skilled at dueling, but Harry held his own by virtue of his vampiric senses. Harry's simpler spells flew from the tip of his wand at a speed that couldn't be matched by a mortal. After a few offensive spells, the Death Eater had no choice but to change his tactics and try to defend himself; the brawny wizard cast Shield Charm after Shield Charm as he desperately tried to keep from being stunned. But, soon enough, one of Harry's Stunning Spells flew through the gap created by the end of one shield and the creation of another. The Death Eater crumpled to the ground in a heap of defeat. Harry stepped over him, pausing for only the shortest of moments to break the wizard's wand with the heel of his foot.

As Harry moved from one opponent to the next, he kept a watchful eye on Edward. The vampire leapt through the mass of duelists with an animalistic grace. He clawed and smashed his way past the line of Death Eaters and then began to attack them from behind. He targeted the Death Eaters that appeared to be on the verge of winning their duels, hitting them with such tremendous force that they were not only knocked unconscious, but probably suffered from a myriad of broken bones and internal injuries as well.

The younger vampire saw Professor Flitwick nearby dueling two different wizards. By the time Harry reached him, the diminutive Charms professor had encased one Death Eater in ice and was about to stun the second one. As he focused on the second Death Eater, a third aimed his wand at the professor's back.

Harry took hold of the third Death Eater by the scruff of his neck and put all of his strength into tossing the wizard away from Professor Flitwick. The dark wizard landed about three meters in front of one of the faraway exit fireplaces before sliding at a not insignificant velocity into the bricks that covered it. The obstruction shook, but held together. Harry realized that the bricks had likely been created by Death Eaters to keep their enemies from escaping.

"Professor Flitwick," Harry asked as he dodged a stray spell. "Do you think you can reopen the Floo Network?"

"Of course," the wizard replied as he shot a set of ropes from his wand and ensnared a female Death Eater that was rushing through the crowd. She toppled over and skidded for several feet before being stopped by the impact of a Stunning Spell shot by Ronald Weasley. "But I need to get to the Department of Magical Transportation to do it! And that means getting past those trolls!"

"Let me handle them," Harry said before making his way through the crowd. He wasn't focusing on defeating enemies as he went, so he was able to make it through the battleground with little difficulty.

The area around the trolls was devoid of combatants, which allowed Harry to get a running start when he leapt at the first of the trolls. The first troll was caught off guard. Harry slammed into the troll's chest with such force that the smelly creature lost balance and fell backwards. The vampire didn't waste a second as he pulled himself into a crouching position on the troll's chest and then leapt forward to the creature's neck; breaking it required surprising little force.

The vampire turned his attention to his second troll opponent. Trolls are notoriously stupid creatures, but even it knew that something was hinky when it saw a wizard perform such deadly maneuvers. It staggered away, reached over, and ripped one of the golden gates from its already abused hinges.

The creature began to take aim at the dark-haired teen. He tensed and prepared to dodge the attack when he heard a familiar voice shout out, "Harry! Get down!"

Harry trusted Jacob Black implicitly and so did as he was ordered. He ducked just as the Native American teen leapt in his direction. The shapeshifter changed into his tawny wolf form in mid-air, shredding his clothes as he went. He landed less than a meter in front of Harry before making another leap, this time going for the troll's face.

The great lug dropped the gate as he tried in vain to catch hold of the large wolf that was ravaging him. Just when it seemed like he was finally going to grab Jake, a second wolf slammed into him and began to bite at the arm that was aiming for the alpha. The troll screamed out in anger and rage as the wolves attacked him. It finally shook the two wolves off and made for a corner of the room where it huddled for protection, crying great sobs into its hands. Harry felt a great swell of pity in his chest of the creature before squashing it down.

Jacob and Leah barked at the terrified troll for a minute until they decided that it was no longer a concern; Leah raced off into the battle where she began to use her powerful jaws on the worst Death Eaters she could find. Jacob transformed into a human momentarily.

"We're all here," Jake said. "Took forever to find you in this mess though. No wonder; I should have been sniffing for a human instead of a vampire." The naked teen explained. "Is there some sort of plan here?"

"Fight," Harry said with a smirk. "And win."

"Cool," Jacob replied before turning back into his wolf form and throwing himself into the melee. Specifically, Jacob rushed to where Rubeus Hagrid was battling Death Eaters with a combination of hard hits and the occasional spell shot from his umbrella. The large wolf began to maul those that attempted to curse the half-giant.

As Harry looked back into the crowd, he could pick out all of his family fighting against the Death Eaters as more wizards and witches continued to arrive through the flameless entry fireplaces. Sirius was laughing at the flabbergasted expressions of the various fighters as he dueled with Death Eaters. Edward, Rosalie, and Jasper were all swatting dark witches and wizards as if they were insects. Alice, ever the dancer, flitted about the hall in moves that were designed to caused Death Eaters to injure their own allies with friendly fire. Emmett, though, was doing the most damage as he picked up great chunks of the remains of the golden fountain and tossed them at any space where the Death Eaters were congregating in an attempt to rally for a renewed assault. Carlisle was pulling the wounded away from the battle towards the Visitor's Entrance while Esme guarded him. To Harry's great surprise, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy were assisting Carlisle and Esme; Narcissa tending to the injured while her son protected her with some rather spectacular displays of what was most assuredly the Dark Arts.

For all of the blood that was being spilt, Harry was amazed at the self-control his family members were all showing. Especially Jasper.

The young vampire made his way back through the crowded Atrium to retrieve Professor Flitwick so that he could be escorted towards the Department of Magical Transportation. As he made his way, he noticed a single, unmasked Death Eater purposely make his way for Jasper.

The blond vampire was preoccupied with dodging the spells being cast by two different Death Eaters and so didn't notice when the scruffy wizard pointed his wand at his back. The unmasked Death Eater had graying brown hair, matted whiskers on his face, and long yellow nails and teeth. If Harry's heart was still beating, it would have stopped as he saw the wizard prepare to kill his brother.

"Jasper!" Harry cried out in warning at the same time the wizard said in a rasping voice, "Avada Kedavra."

The green jet of light flew from the tip of the wizard's wand but, to Harry's immense relief and eternal gratitude, it hit a large chunk of rock that seemed to appear between Jasper and the Death Eater's spell from nowhere. Jasper turned just in time to see the rock explode. Severus Snape then began to levitate several more chunks of broken stone at the enemy Death Eater with his wand. In the next instant, the Potions professor was fighting Death Eaters back-to-back with Harry's brother.

Harry was immensely relieved that the spell was prevented from hitting his brother. There was no way to be certain what effect the Killing Curse would have on a vampire. While they were already dead in the traditional sense, it was a bit of a grey area. If the prophecy was anything to go by, Harry was still technically 'not dead,' after all.

After a moment of scrutiny in which Harry satisfied his own concerns about Snape's loyalty, he resumed his trip through the crowd towards Professor Flitwick. The short professor had moved on to a new opponent, but wasn't fairing nearly as well as he had before. His new enemy had pushed him back towards one of the entry fireplaces and had managed to curse the Charms professor and create a deep, bleeding gash on this forehead.

As the Death Eater raised his wand to cast another spell at Professor Flitwick, Harry flipped his arm forward in a hard jerk and shouted, "Diffindo!" The Severing Charm flew from the wand with frightening force and severed several of the Death Eater's fingers form his hand. The wizard howled in pain as the wand slipped from the bloody stubs that remained of his fingers. Flitwick then threw a bright orange spell at the Death Eater that sent the villain spiraling through the air, only to land in a crumpled heap.

Harry passed by another Death Eater as he made his way to Flitwick. This Death Eater was in a duel with Kingsley Shackelbolt. Although the Auror had things well in hand, the vampire still opted to provide some assistance and so brought his first down on the dark wizard's shoulder and sent him to the floor with enough force that it broke several of the floor tiles.

"Professor," Harry said as he arrived in front of Flitwick. "The trolls have been taken care of. Are you ready to go to the Department of Magical Transportation?" He stepped to the side to avoid a stray hex while he waited for the Hogwarts professor to catch his breath and answer.

"Y-Yes," the mustachioed wizard said. "We should hurry."

A dark purple spell flew towards the pair. There was no need for Harry to act to avoid it because Kingsley stepped in front of him and cast a Shielding Charm and a Stunning Spell in quick succession.

"Harry," the black Auror said. "We need to press the offensive. There are still dozens of Death Eaters in the main offices of the Ministry beyond the gates. Voldemort is with them."

"I was beginning to wonder where he was," Harry said as he and Professor Flitwick began to follow Kingsley towards the bank of elevators. All three were casting spells, dodging curses, and leaping over and around fallen fighters and chunks of debris. "Can you escort Professor Flitwick to the Floo Network Authority?"

"Yes," Kingsley said somewhat uncertainly as he shot another Stunning Spell off towards a Death Eater that was dueling Katie Bell. The Death Eater saw the spell coming towards him and deflected it, but left himself wide open for a barrage of spells from Oliver, Alicia, and Angela.

"Do you know where in the Ministry Voldemort is at?"

"I'm guessing he went for the Minister's office on level one," Kingsley answered. "You're not planning on going up there alone, are you?"

"I have to," the vampire replied as he pulled Flitwick out of the path of a Killing Curse. "There isn't any other way. If we can kill Voldemort, capture him, or force him to flee, his Death Eaters will lose their nerve." He left out the bit about there being a strong likelihood that Voldemort was still immortal and so _couldn't_ be killed. At least, not killed in the usual sense of the word.

The trio arrived at the bank of lifts just in time to see three sets of lift doors explode outward. Fire and shards of metal flew outward, instantly killing several fighters from both sides of the conflict that had moved into the area after the defeat of the trolls. Harry, Kingsley, and Flitwick were only spared from the onslaught by the professor's quick spellcasting; he forced a large section of the floor to bubble up like a monster rising from mud. The mass of flooring created a suitable shied to protect them from the fire and shrapnel.

"We're not going by lift, then," Harry said.

"The stairs," Kingsley said immediately as he moved towards a space of wall that was only two meters away from where the troll still remained cowering. He tapped the space with his wand three times in the same manner that Harry once saw Hagrid tapping his umbrella against the bricks in the small courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron in order to open the portal to Diagon Alley. The outline of a door appeared before Harry's eyes. The wall within the perimeter of that outline faded away, leaving only an opening that led to a stairwell. Things were much quieter once inside the stairwell.

"Usually, the only way to get through the building is to use the lifts," Kingsley explained. "The stairs are only ever used to get down to the Department of Mysteries and the lowest courtrooms, and even then you usually have to use the access on level nine."

Harry and Flitwick followed the Auror up the stairs. After just two flights, he announced, "This is our stop, professor. Level six: Department of Magical Transportation." He then turned to Harry. "The Minister's office is all the way up on level one. Level two is the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, so it's a good bet that the Minister had a full contingent of Aurors protecting him. Level one is going to be a mess; it might even be as big of a battleground as the one we just left." He then turned to the wall and tapped it three times with his wand to create an opening into level six.

The vampire warred with himself for a minute before saying, "I should go with you. They put a lot into bringing down the Floo Network and stuff. It's bound to be heavily guarded."

"No," Flitwick said. "We'll do our job, but you must do yours."

"He's right," Kingsley added. "Voldemort must be stopped. No matter the cost."

Harry hesitated for a few seconds before nodding his head resolutely. He spared another glance at each of the two wizards before making his way up the stairs.

"And Potter!" Kingsley shouted. "Good luck!"

Harry smiled to himself, finally seeming to have won the Auror's approval. He raced his way upwards through the hidden staircase at the Ministry of Magic until there were no more stairs, only a blank space of wall.

The vampire-wizard took a moment to organize his thoughts and prepare himself. He hadn't seen Voldemort since the end of his fourth year at Hogwarts. And now, he was going to face the monster in a battle that could very well determine the survival of the wizarding community. And his family. While he was very much aware of the innocent wizards and witches who were relying on him, he was much more focused on the deadline the Volturi had given him. Capturing Voldemort would mean little if he was unable to discover and destroy the final Horcrux. He had to find a way to get the wizard to reveal the final Horcrux to him. But how was a seventeen-year-old to trick one of the craftiest wizards of all time?

Harry exited the stairs into a long hallway that was lined with windows that depicted the nighttime sky. He knew that he was still underground, so he concluded that the images must be illusions. Walking briskly down the corridor, he caught a whiff of blood coming from the area behind the large double doors at the end of his path. The hall was eerily quiet compared to the Atrium. He easily pushed the double doors open to reveal the room beyond.

The room was a large square. There were fourteen desks lined in two rows of seven desks each—seven, of course, being the most powerful magical number. The walls were lined with more of the magical windows and portraits of various wizards and witches, all of whom the immortal assumed to be former Ministers for Magic. Despite there being only fourteen desks, Harry counted no fewer than forty bodies littered about the room. Thirteen of the bodies belonged to dark-clad Death Eaters. The rest, he concluded, belonged to a combination of Aurors and administrative staff. He was sickened when he realized that one of the bodies belonged to Percy Weasley. Molly's third-born was staring at the ceiling with a vacant expression, clearly the victim of an Avada Kedavra.

Directly opposite of the set of doors that Harry entered the room through was another set of double doors. Unlike the relatively plain doors at his back, this pair looked to be hand carved from ancient mahogany. On each door was the symbol of the Ministry of Magic: a large, golden 'M' bisected by a wand from which a shower of golden sparks was emanating. Harry knew without a doubt that he was facing the office of the Minister for Magic.

As Harry approached the door, he could smell something distinctly unnatural. It smelled like a decomposing reptile or a snake that had spent far too much time around graveyard. The vampire knew this to be the scent of Lord Voldemort.

He gripped his wand tightly in his hand and, in one swift motion, threw the doors open. To his surprise, Voldemort was not to be seen in the large, immaculately decorated office. The vampire-wizard could definitely smell his enemy, but he couldn't see him. Perhaps he'd already left?

No. The scent was too strong and too fresh. Voldemort was in the room. But for some reason, Harry could not see him. And the Dark Lord's scent was everywhere, so the vampire could not track him with his olfactory senses easily either. And there was no sound of Voldemort's beating heart to listen for, either.

Harry moved through the room slowly, never lowering his wand. He passed by the ruins of what had once been two sleek, leather chairs that were positioned in front of the Minister's extravagant desk. The large window behind the Minister's desk that overlooked the Atrium was still intact and Harry's human visage was clearly visible. His eyes roamed over the destroyed remains of what must have once been a very fine office. At least as fine as that of the head of Hogwarts. Clearly, the Minister must have put up quite the fight.

As the vampire made his way around the desk, he saw a body on the floor. He'd never seen Rufus Scrimgeour before, not even in a picture. But he knew that the wizard had once been the head of the Auror Office and the man on the floor certainly looked the part, aside from being dead. The wizard had tawny hair and busy eyebrows. He was badly shaven and, on the whole, looked rather like an old lion to Harry.

He had no sooner stopped to look at the body of the fallen Minister than Harry was assaulted with pain like he'd only experienced a few times before in his life. It was the Cruciatus Curse, he knew. The spell was held on him for several minutes. The last time he'd been subjected to the curse, he had screamed until his throat was hoarse. But this time was different. He had a much higher tolerance for pain and his will to resist Lord Voldemort was greater than ever. Just as he would not allow Edward to hear him cry out while the vampire venom burned through his veins, Harry would not allow his enemy hear him cry out while subjected to this torture.

The spell was released after several minutes, but Harry could not move. He was held in his hunched position by a Full Body Bind.

"Tsk, tsk, Potter," a high pitched voice rasped. "Still so simple. So foolish. Running off to face your better." The voice broke into a fit of coughing for several seconds.

Harry was turned by an invisible hand so that he faced the room. He could now hear Lord Voldemort's movements as he walked invisibly about; not the actual footsteps, nor even his heartbeats, but the sound of the wizard gently pushing the shattered remains of the leather chairs out of his way as he approached the desk.

"Oh, forgive my lack of manners, boy," the dark wizard spat. "I'd forgotten that you couldn't see us."

Starting with the top of his pale, bald head, Lord Voldemort appeared standing before Harry. The wizard's red eyes reminded the newborn vampire of the ancient vampires of Volterra. He was as tall and skeletal as Harry remembered, but he looked frailer somehow. As if the regal bearing and strength that the self-proclaimed 'Dark Lord' had once held had been totally sapped by the disease Harry was now certain was ravaging the corpse-like body.

But Voldemort wasn't the only thing to appear. His great snake, Nagini, appeared as well. The serpent was not slithering on the ground as she had during Harry's last encounter with his enemy, but was floating in the air in a strange bubble. It looked as if someone had taken the clear night sky from above the Earth and wrapped Nagini in it. She floated in the air amidst a blanket of twinkling stars. Every few seconds, she hissed as her tongue left her mouth to taste the air.

Harry could hear the great snake speaking to its master in the hissing of Parseltongue, but the words were lost on him. He'd lost the ability to speak the language of the snakes when the bit of Voldemort's soul that had clung to him that October night over sixteen years ago was burned away by Edward's venom.

"Nagini is hungry," Voldemort rasped tiredly.

Harry was instantly relieved, but did not allow it show on his face. He was certain that Nagini would have been able to smell that he was no longer human. But, it seemed, the illusion that Dumbledore had placed on him went beyond mere appearance. He then remembered what Jacob had said a short while ago about how he should have been sniffing for a human and not a vampire. Dumbledore's spell made him appear _and_ smell human, he realized.

"And now I face the eternal dilemma. Do I kill you myself as I have always dreamed? Or do I simply allow Nagini her feast? Surely, I have made many miscalculations over the years where you are concerned, Potter. Miscalculations that have allowed you to come so very close to my secret."

The wizard reached into his robes and pulled out the fake Cup of Hufflepuff that Cormac McLaggen had switched for the real one.

"How many did you discover, I wonder," Voldemort said before breaking into another fit of coughing. He looked back and forth between the Cup and Nagini. "You filthy Half-blood. Thinking you could take my treasures from me. That Mudblood whore you call a mother should have been drowned at birth instead of being allowed to steal magic from true wizards. She should never have been allowed to birth such awful spawn into my pure world. I threw your mother from this world, boy. And now I will throw you from it as well."

Voldemort jerked his wand toward's Nagini. As the ball in which she was encased began to roll through the air towards Harry, he noticed that Voldemort did not wield his old yew wand, but Lucius Malfoy's black wand. The new wand was recognizable because of its distinctive snake head. The Dark Lord had clearly taken Ollivander's advice. "No duel. No useless theatrics. Just pain and death, boy. Pain and death."

The ball continued to roll towards Harry. Rather than bumping against his head and bouncing off, it absorbed Harry's head and the upper part of his torso so that he was in the cage with the snake.

"There is an irony here, boy. That you are about to be killed by one of the things you sought to destroy." Voldemort motioned towards Nagini again, but his eyes darted momentarily towards the counterfeit Cup that he'd sat on the Minister's desk.

Sudden realization shot through Harry. Nagini was the thing that was about to kill him. And the Horcruxes were the things Harry had sought to destroy. Nagini was the last Horcrux. That was why she was floating in the protection of the magic bubble and not on the floor devouring the body of the Minister for Magic. That was why Voldemort kept looking back and forth between Nagini and the Cup.

The Dark Lord then tried to laugh, but ended up coughing instead. After his latest fit subsided, he smiled—if the strange expression that crossed his lipless face could be called a smile—as he watched Nagini wrap herself around Harry and prepare to move in for the kill. Whether the fangs of such a snake could harm a vampire, Harry did not know.

"You will no longer be known as the 'Boy-Who-Lived.' You will just be another pathetic creature, crushed under my jackboot. Now, scream." With two flicks of his wand, the wizard disarmed Harry and then released him from his Full Body Bind.

Overconfidence, Harry knew, was Voldemort's greatest weakness. For in his overconfidence, he had made two fatal errors. First, he'd revealed that Nagini was the last Horcrux. Second, he'd unleashed the spell that kept Harry's jaw immobile.

When the snake pulled its head back to strike, Harry pushed himself up further into the bubble and struck instead. He sank his sharp teeth into Nagini's body and tore viciously at the creature. The immediate agony of Harry's venom caused the snake to break off its attack and thrash about in its bubble.

"What?" Voldemort cried unbelievingly as the seventeen-year-old boy savagely attacked his pet. He thrust his wand in Harry's direction and called out his favorite spell. "Avada Kedavra!"

The green light sped towards Harry legs. With a hard kick, the vampire-wizard pushed off of the Minister's desk and turned the bubble 180 degrees on a vertical axis. In other words, he moved so that his legs were in the air and the bubble was put in the path of the deadly spell. The Killing Curse shattered the protective bubble that had been placed around Nagini, freeing both of its captives.

Harry landed hard on the floor amidst the still-writhing body of the last Horcrux. He scrambled to collect his wand from where it had fallen on the floor. Once he had it firmly in his hand, he began throwing Stunning Spells and Disarming Charms at Lord Voldemort.

The Dark Lord cried in fury and countered Harry's spells with Killing Curses. The boy then responded with a Cruciatus Curse. None of the spells fired by other combatant landed home, however. Voldemort, even weakened by disease, was too skilled and Harry was too fast.

Nagini stopped her jerky movements on the floor as she finally succumbed to the grave wound Harry had inflicted upon her. While the bite of a vampire, if left untreated, will turn a human into a vampire over the course of three days, animals weren't as receptive to the venom. They just died horrible deaths within a few moments, usually because their hearts give out.

Voldemort and Harry continued to throw spells at one another. Nothing was off-limits in this battle. Both threw Unforgivable Curses, Stunning Spells, Severing Charms, and even Disarming Charms. Voldemort conjured great and terrible snakes made of black flame, but Harry easily dodged them. Harry threw a volley of spells at a speed that no human could match, but Voldemort transfigured a great shield with the emblem of House Slytherin upon it and protected himself. The Dark Lord conjured a rain of daggers, but Harry batted them harmlessly away with his diamond-hard arms. Harry responded by attempting to get close enough to Voldemort to attack with his claws, but the old wizard countered by creating a magic shockwave that forced his opponent back towards the entrance of the room.

After several minutes, it became apparent to Harry that he would have to rely on Voldmort's one remaining weakness: his mortality. Voldemort, unlike Harry, was bound by the physical limitation that all mortals were bound by. One of those limitations was exhaustion; a limitation exacerbated by the fact that a disease was ravaging his organs.

Harry began to move faster and faster, running from one side of the room to the other. He'd zig and zag and then jump back in forth in random patterns. Every time he changed position, Voldemort was forced to cast another spell in that new direction. Although the evil wizard made several attempts to trap Harry by casting a series of spells designed to box him in and force him to where Voldemort wanted him to go, the red-eyed wizard's movements were slow enough to Harry's eyes that the vampire was able to counter with spells that put out fires and destroyed obstructions.

Soon enough, Voldemort's breathing became ragged and his spellwork became sloppy. His heart was beating so rapidly in his chest that Harry considered trying to force him to have a heart attack. His aim was off and his reaction times were worsening. Then, for one long moment, he stopped and stood totally still in silent shock.

Not understanding but seeing an opportunity, Harry turned a charged the wizard. With a great swipe of his claws, he tore open Voldemort's chest and sent the wizard flying over the top of the desk to land in a heap by the Minister's fallen body. His wand, or rather, the wand that he'd been using throughout their battle, clattered to the floor as it slipped from his fingers.

As Voldemort's form lowered momentarily out of sight, Harry realized why the wizard had stopped in surprise. Harry could see his own reflection in the window behind the Minister's desk. He was not looking at Harry Potter, though; he was looking at Harry Cullen. The illusion that had made Harry seem human was gone.

Voldemort had frozen in surprise when he realized that he was battling not a mere boy, but a vampire.

"Y-You're already dead," Voldemort rasped as he stood up. His flat nostrils flared as he struggled to breathe and laughed weakly at the thought.

"No," Harry said with a firm shake of the head. "I'm immortal. You're the one who's dead." With a hard kick, he sent the Minister's desk slamming into Voldemort. The force of the impact sent Harry's nemesis and the desk flying through the glass window that overlooked the Atrium.

The vampire waited for what felt like an eternity before his vampiric senses detected the sound of Voldemort, the desk, and a great deal of glass impacting on the floor of the Atrium seven floors below. There was a moment of stunned silence from the crowd below before a loud victory cry rose into the air. There were a few cries of despair from the remaining Death Eaters, but they were soon silenced by force.

Slowly, Harry made his way from the office of the late Minister and down the stairs to the Atrium. The fighting was completely over by the time he arrived. The ground was littered with the remains of Death Eaters and freedom fighters alike. To the dark-haired immortal's great pleasure, the remains of fallen villains greatly outnumbered the fallen heroes.

"Harry!" Hermione's voice cried out from the crowd as soon as he passed the one golden gate that remained attached, however tenuously, to the wall. The witch caught the vampire in a fierce hug that was quickly joined by Ron. "We won, Harry! We won!"

He smiled and returned the hug, but didn't really pay attention to either of his old friends' recounting of the battle. His attention wandered first to the messy remains of Voldemort and then through the crowd as he searched for his loved ones.

Sirius was clapping Remus on the back over by the remains of the fountain. The Floo Network must have been up and running once more because most of the Order of the Phoenix, including Kingsley Shackelbolt, were standing with them. Carlisle, Esme, and the Malfoys were still by the Visitor's entrance tending to the wounded. They were now aided by Leah and Jacob, both of whom were back in their human forms and seemed to have acquired clothes to wear. Jasper and Alice were embracing each other by the entry fireplaces while Rosalie and Emmett mirrored them on the opposite side of the room by the exit fireplaces.

The vampire began to grow frantic as he searched for his mate.

"Harry," Edward's voice called somberly. Harry untangled himself from his old friends and raced into the direction of the sound. After he passed his former quidditch teammates, he finally found his bronze-haired husband.

Harry's immortal husband was sitting on the floor near a wailing Hagrid and Professor McGonagall, who was crying softly into a handkerchief. On the floor next to Edward was the still body of Headmaster Dumbledore. As soon as the old wizard's body came into view, Harry understood what had happened on level one: the spell that hid his vampiric nature had been broken when Albus Dumbledore was killed.

Edward rose as he caught sight of Harry and raced towards him. Harry, likewise, broke into an all-out sprint to reach his one true love. They met in the middle. Edward had the common sense to slow down as he neared the meeting point, but Harry didn't. The young vampire slammed into his husband and knocked him to the floor. Edward found himself flat on his back being kissed roughly by his mate.

"Nagini was the last one," Harry said between kisses. "I killed her first. So he's gone for good. It's over, Edward. It's really over."

The pair remained on the floor for several minutes as they enjoyed the feeling of victory. After they were each thoroughly satisfied that the other had made it through unharmed, they rose to their feet. Edward silently escorted Harry to the body of his former headmaster.

"He saved me," Edward said quietly as Harry looked down at his former headmaster. "He took a Killing Curse for me."

The younger vampire slowly knelt to the ground. In that moment, he felt so much gratitude for the old wizard that he couldn't express himself properly. There were many criticisms that could be made of Albus Dumbledore. Some thought him a sneak, a manipulator, an uncaring strategist, and even a foolish old man. But in that moment, Harry could only think of praise for the man that had protected the source of all of his joy and happiness.

Gently, Harry reached out and straightened the half-moon spectacles that sat perched upon Dumbledore's crooked nose. The vampire leaned forward and, very softly, whispered in Dumbledore's ear. "Thank you."


	73. Chapter 73

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 73: The Setting Sun**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Chapter Seventy-Two – The Setting Sun**

Harry sat under one of the large trees that hid the field that the Weasley family used to practice quidditch from prying Muggle eyes. Three days had passed since the battle at the Ministry of Magic and things were returning to normal for the wizarding community. Or rather, things were settling into the new normal.

Unlike the First War, as it was now referred, the Second War of Voldemort—a name no one feared to use any longer—had been won by the people of the wizarding community, not a single infant. Although Harry was the one to actually kill Voldemort, wizards and witches banded together and fought for their freedom and, in doing so, learned to appreciate its fragility. The old ways were dead. The follies that had led to Death Eaters being able to bribe their way out of imprisonment and free men being chained were recognized for what they were. No one was content to just sweep things under the rug this time around.

"Harry," a deep voice greeted. The vampire turned to look at Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Minister," Harry greeted in reply as he stood up.

"_Interim_ Minister," the former Auror corrected. "I don't intend to hold the post any longer than absolutely necessary."

"Which may be a while. Voldemort killed almost all of the department heads and the Wizengamot. There isn't much of anyone left who's qualified for the position," Harry pointed out.

"Would you mind taking a walk with me? There are a number of things going on at the Ministry that you should be made aware of."

Harry nodded his assent and then motioned for Kingsley to lead the way. They stayed to the shadows created by the trees that surrounded the field; there was no need for Kingsley to be blinded by the dazzling effect of the vampire's skin.

"Any word on Snape?" Harry asked after a few moments of unbroken silence.

"A few words, actually," the Interim Minister for Magic said. "McGonagall found a letter in his chambers not long after he disappeared. It simply said that he had repaid his debt to someone named 'Evans' and that he was leaving."

The former Potions professor was one of several people that Harry was still unsure how to feel about. There was a part of him that still held the man accountable for the deaths of his parents. The excuses that Dumbledore had given to Harry about bullying and an unhappy childhood didn't wash away the man's many sins, in the vampire's opinion anyway. But there was a much larger part of him that was grateful to Snape for saving Jasper's life from the Death Eater that he now knew to be Fenrir Greyback.

"He's gone," Harry said. "Just let him go. He was Dumbledore's man through and through."

"That is our thinking. With resources being what they are, we can't spare anyone to go looking a man who, by all estimates, left of his own accord. The captured Death Eaters are still claiming he was one of them, but we know that he working for Dumbledore. We're much more interested in finding Crabbe and Goyle."

"I'm sure that wherever they are, they're making their sons proud," the immortal said.

"You misunderstand me, Harry," Kingsley said as he stopped walking. "I'm looking for the younger pair. The older ones have already been apprehended."

"Why in the world are you looking for the younger ones?" Harry asked in surprise. "They weren't even at the Ministry."

"No, but they caused it. We caught up with Pettigrew near Sheffield. When we interrogated him, he revealed that Voldemort went to the Ministry after Crabbe and Goyle reported to him that Ronald Weasley was leaving a seventh floor room of the castle with some sort of tiara."

The dark-haired vampire smacked himself in the head. "The girl."

"What girl?"

"I remember Ron telling Remus that a first-year Slytherin girl had seen him make his way out the castle. And Malfoy told me that when he was hiding in the castle repairing the Vanishing Cabinet, he used Crabbe and Goyle as lookouts. He said that they were disguised. I'd bet a sizeable pile of galleons that the little girl was either Crabbe or Goyle, still watching the room."

"It makes a certain amount of sense, but there are still some things I don't understand. Like why seeing Ron Weasley with a tiara would instigate an attack on the Ministry."

Harry shrugged. "Beats me." It was a lie, of course. Harry knew very well that once Ronald Weasley was seen leaving the castle with the Diadem of Ravenclaw, Voldemort knew that his secret had been discovered and moved to protect his other Horcruxes. The dark wizard had gone to the Ministry of Magic to retrieve the Cup of Hufflepuff, not knowing that the one being held under the Decree for Justifiable Confiscation was a fake.

"You're lying," Kingsley said plainly. "But I suppose you're doing it because of whatever it was that Dumbledore had you off doing, so I'll let it pass."

"Just trust me when I tell you that seeing Ron with the tiara was more than enough motivation for Voldemort to head to the Ministry straight away."

"Alright then. That brings me to the main thing I need to discuss with you. And that is Dumbledore's last act as Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards."

"Oh?"

"I'm sure you've been made aware of the fact that he'd been off doing something with the ICW for several months before his death."

"I am," Harry answered, thinking back to the several instances in which members of the Order commented to him about how the old wizard was so focused on ICW business.

"He had several laws amended to be more favorable to vampires. Once the ICW passed Dumbledore's revisions, all of the member states had no choice but to amend their local laws accordingly."

"What did he do?" the newborn asked.

"For starters, it is now illegal to destroy vampiric wizards. It had always been a grey area before and many governments destroyed them outright, but now it is expressly forbidden."

"So I don't have to worry about Aurors breaking up Mrs. Weasley's picnic?"

Kingsley chuckled. "I doubt you'd be able to find an Auror that would be willing to break up this picnic for all the gold in Gringotts. Between the vampires, the shapeshifters, and the obscene number of expert dueslists here, it would be suicide." The former Auror sobered after a few seconds. "The biggest change in the law was in relation to vampires who only feed off of animal blood."

"Don't leave me in suspense, Kingsley."

"As long as a vampire keeps the secret of his immortality and doesn't interfere with magical affairs, they're to be held in the same protected status as Muggles."

"What does that mean exactly?" the vampire questioned.

"Basically, you leave us alone and we leave you alone. Don't feed on humans and don't let anyone know that you're a vampire, and the Ministry can't touch you. You can have contact with your friends and family in our community, but it is limited to what is allowed for a Muggle. That means anytime you want to go to Diagon Alley or some place like that, you must have a wizard or witch as an escort."

"That's great," Harry said in surprise. "Between this and what he did for Edward, I'm beginning to think I might have been a bit hard on the old man."

"From what I hear, you might have been just hard enough," Kingsley said wryly. "There is one other thing, though. Your wand."

"My wand?" Harry questioned in surprise. His hand instinctively shot to his right pocket where the holly and phoenix feather tool was hidden.

"You can't keep it. One of the restrictions is that you can't use magic anymore. If you use magic, you're under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of whatever country you live in just like any other witch and wizard. Either you're a wizard or you're not."

Harry grumbled for a moment. "I can live with that, I guess. But can I keep it for another day or two? Just until we're ready to leave?"

Shacklebolt frowned.

"C'mon. What's the point of being friends with the Minister for Magic if I can't get a little favoritism here and there."

"_Interim_ Minister for Magic," Kingsley corrected again. "Just make sure that you surrender your wand before you leave the country. I don't want to have to explain to the American Secretary why I let a vampire enter her county with a wand and didn't alert her."

"Thanks," Harry said sincerely. The pair stopped walking away from the celebration and turned around. "How is everyone taking the news that the famous Harry Potter is a vampire? I've been hiding out as best as I can and no one is too keen on telling me."

"The reactions are mixed," Kingsley confessed. "Many of your comrades-in-arms don't care, but there is a vocal minority that already wants to rewrite history and give credit for killing Voldemort to someone else. Others are claiming that you weren't turned until after you defeated him."

"What, like on the stairs back down to the Atrium?"

"Exactly. I know the timeline doesn't fit, but there isn't reasoning with some of these people. With that Skeeter woman telling a new tale in every article she publishes . . . Let's just say that it is a very good thing that you'll be surrendering your wand. The last thing we need is the populace screaming about a vampire using magic."

"Let's see, is there anything else I absolutly have to know about?" Harry asked himself. "Has a new head been picked for Hogwarts?"

"We want McGonagall to take the job. She's refused twice already, though."

"She'll accept," the vampire assured the wizard. "In her mind, Dumbledore is still the headmaster. Once she accepts that he's gone and sees the necessity of having a good, strong head, she'll do the right thing and take the job. I can't imagine anyone else who would be remotely qualified. Except maybe Flitwick."

"Who has already owled to inform me that he won't be taking the job, even if I do offer it to him. I didn't know whether to praise his loyalty to McGonagall or to be amazed at his nerve for assuming he's in the running. But I do need Minverva to agree. And soon. There are already some who are trying to position Umbridge for the spot. With the disaster she caused as a professor and the High Inquisitor . . ."

Harry smiled sourly. "Horribly lucky for her that she wasn't in the Ministry at the time of the attack."

"Yes, lucky indeed." The wizard hesitated for a moment before asking the question that he really wanted to ask of Harry. "Do you mind letting me know what your plans are?"

"Oh, the usual. Go home, make love to husband, and hope desperately that everyone decides to just leave me alone for a very long time," the vampire said with a smile.

Harry left Kingsley by the trees and walked off to join Edward, the sunlight reflecting off of his skin in a dazzling desplay. The older vampire was making very uncomfortable chit-chat with Ginny Weasley. As Harry neared him, Edward politely excused himself from the girl and then walked briskly to join his mate.

"What's this I hear about going home and making love?" Edward asked hopefully.

"That bad, huh?"

"She's spent the last hour analyzing every little aspect of our relationship. She's still trying to figure out how I 'tricked' you into this marriage."

"You should have told her the truth: you seduced me," Harry said lightly.

"_I_ seduced _you_?" Edward asked as he began to lead Harry. "That's not how I remember it at all."

"Yes, well, you're wrong," the darker-haired immortal said flatly. "You seduced me. I was nothing but an innocent little schoolboy who wanted nothing more but to get good grades and make friends."

"First off, you've never been too determined to get good grades. And secondly," he said leering at his husband, "if you want to play the 'innocent schoolboy,' then I'm all for it," Edward flashed his mate his favorite crooked smile. "Carlisle showed up," he pointed out needlessly.

"I noticed. Does that me we've heard back?"

"The Volturi are very pleased that Voldemort is dead and send you their congratulations. They aren't going to move against our family. At least, not at the moment." The last was added as a dark afterthought. Neither vampire had any delusions about the fact that the Volutri would bide their time, watch the Cullen family, and take advantage of every opportunity to manipulate them in the future. "I heard you talking to Kingsley. Are you happy that you'll still be able to see your friends?"

"Yes . . . I think," Harry said with a very noticeable uncertainty. "I like that I can still see them, but there's the aging thing. It sounds weird, but I think it was easier when I knew I wouldn't see them ever again. Now I will be able to see them grow old and . . . " he trailed off. "I have a much better understanding of why you thought a relationship between a human and a vampire was doomed." After a few seconds of somber silence, Harry added jokingly, "Stupid mortality. Glad I got rid of that."

The pair looked around the assembled group of wizards and witches and reflected for a few moments on everything that had happened. Everything that had been lost and gained.

The Weasley family had not come out of the war unscathed. Percy Weasly was killed during Voldemort's initial assault on the Ministry and Bill Weasley was among the Order of the Phoenix members lost during the battle. Though Bill was lost, his legacy will live on in the unborn child that Fleur was carrying. Harry smiled sadly as he looked at Molly Weasley as she busily tended to the picnic guests and fussed over both her husband, who now sported a very pronounced limp, and her pregnant daughter-in-law. The twins were on Molly every second, making sure she didn't dwell on her first and third sons too much. If they didn't stay out of her way, Molly might rid herself of two more sons before the picnic came to an end.

Charlie Weasley, it seemed, had finally gotten over his unrequited feelings for Harry and moved on. To Cormac McLaggen. The wiry-haired boy was regaling both the dragon keeper and Ginny with a tale about his small but pivotal role in the battle against Voldemort. He had no idea the real importance of the Cup of Hufflepuff, but was certain of its great value because of both the false story Edward had told him and the fact that the fake Cup was found at the scene of Harry and Voldemort's now-legendary duel. Harry watched the shameless flirting between the three and wasn't sure if he should root for Charlie or Ginny. But he was leaning towards to former; they made a cute couple, in his opinion.

Ron was leading Hermione away from the crowd. Harry laughed a little bit as he saw them walk off. Ron didn't think Hermione knew about the engagement ring in his pocket. Hermione was more than happy to let Ron think that.

Sirius had been cleared, finally. Harry's assurance that Sirius was innocent of the crimes of which he'd been accused went a long way with the people that counted, but a few drops of veritaserum was what really did the trick. The firm demand from Harry, the Hogwarts professors, and their allies that all accused Death Eater be given the opportunity to be tried with veritaserum ensured that no one who was innocent was wrongfully shipped off to Azkaban. Given Kingsley's news about the capture of Peter Pettigrew, the few people who still believed in the animagus's guilt were about to have a rude wakeup call.

Remus was the person who had really surprised Harry. The werewolf had struck up a secret relationship with Tonks, a woman thirteen years his junior. When Edward made a good-natured joke on the subject, Harry brought up the age gap that existed in their own relationship. It was funny to watch proper Remus and rebellious Tonks snogging like a pair of love-struck teenagers. Almost as funny as it was to watch the reactions of everyone around them.

The Malfoys had emerged from the entire affair with a name that was worth a hippogriff's weight in gold. Their family was no longer associated with the Dark Arts and corruption as much as with their heroic actions to save the injured and dying during the Battle for the Ministry. Between the goodwill from their actions and a sizable donation to Saint Mungo's Hospital, Narcissa and Draco once again found themselves the cream of the crop. Harry had a newfound respect for the pair because of their actions and desperately hoped that they would keep themselves deserving of the respect and praise being sent their way.

But not everything turned out so well. The death count from the Battle for the Ministry was very high. The Ministry had been all but annihilated. Even the most obscure offices found themselves understaffed. A sizeable number of the civilian recruits perished and the Order lost many good wizards and witches, such as Hestia Jones, Elphias Doge, Bill Weasley, and Dedalus Diggle. And, of course, Albus Dumbledore. Mad-Eye Moody survived, but had lost a chunk of his wand arm and his real eye. The Order members were among the last of the arrivals to the battle, but were reputed to have fought bravely to the end, saving the lives of many of the less-experienced fighters that Harry had recruited from Diagon Alley.

Soon enough, the time came for Harry and his family and friends to make their way back to the hotel so that they could pack and return home. Neither Hermione nor Molly Weasley could resist tearing up. Even Ron seemed a bit choked up by the whole affair.

As Edward pulled one of the two rental cars away from the Burrow, Harry watched the ramshackle house, bathed in red and orange light, fade from sight. After a few moments, however, he couldn't stop himself from laughing out loud any longer.

"What?" Alice asked. The sound of Harry's laughter was very disconcerting considering the fact that he'd just said goodbye to several friends and his godfather.

"I have to surrender my wand."

"Edward told us," the seer said. "But I don't see what's so funny about it."

Harry looked at the other occupants of the car before explaining. "Dumbledore knew. He knew that I'd have to surrender my wand and he sent me a new, identical one. I can give Kingsley the shards of the old one. The only people who would care about me keeping a wand don't know that the old one is broken. Dumbledore actually made sure that I could keep my wand and still be free of the Ministry."

The entire car broke into laughter.


	74. Chapter 74

I, London Man, did **NOT** write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did **NOT **steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

**Chapter 74: Epilogue**

**Harry Potter and the Setting Sun**

**Disclaimer: **_**Harry**__**Potter**_** by J.K. Rowling, the **_**Twilight Saga**_** by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.**

Warning: This story contains slash.

**Epilogue – Sunrise**

_I've remained on what I have dubbed 'greeting card terms' with most of my old friends from Britain. We're still friends and we remain aware of the developments in one another's lives, but I don't visit often. _

_The simple fact is that I am an immortal. It will be less painful for all involved if I simply phase myself out of their lives. That way I don't have to watch them grow old and die and they do not grow to hate me for my eternal youth. There would be contempt every time one of their loved ones died because I could have prevented it by turning that loved one into a vampire._

_Even if they asked, I wouldn't turn them. Being a vampire is about more than just avoiding death. It isn't enough to want to live forever; there must be something to live forever for. Edward was immortal when I met him and I will live forever for him. Had we met as mortals and were given the opportunity to become vampires, I would refuse. There are great and terrible sacrifices that must be made when being turned into a vampire and, if given the choice, I would always have picked a mortal life with a mortal Edward._

_We cannot grow old together. We cannot remain in any community long enough to establish roots and connections there. We must live every day surrounded by people whose lives we cannot be a part of and we must spend every day guarding our secret and resisting the multitude of temptations that surround us._

_The only people outside of my family who I am able to have significant contact with are my friends in La Push. As long as Jacob and Leah continue to transform into their wolf forms regularly, they too are immortal. They have both made it clear that neither has any intention to stop transforming unless, of course, they find mortal mates of their own. They say that I'm far too accident-prone to be allowed to wander about for eternity unattended by their watchful eyes; I need them, now and forever. It's bull, but I go along with it._

_My involvement with the Second War of Voldemort wasn't the last time that a conflict in the Wizarding community tried to wreak havoc on my life. Nor was it the last time the Volturi decided to try and impose their will on my family. But those are other stories. I much prefer to focus on the years between each crisis._

"Hi," a blond-haired girl greeted a brunette that had just entered the cafeteria. "I'm Amy. You're Michelle, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Michelle replied.

"Why don't you sit with us?" the first girl offered.

"Thanks," Michelle said in relief. It was her first day at a new school and she had been terrified of not fitting in. She joined Amy and her friends at their table in the center of the room. The 'new girl,' as Michelle was known around the school, was very pleased to have been accepted by the popular kids. Introductions were made and everyone engaged in some general high school small talk.

"Say, who're they?" the brunette eventually asked as she nodded her head in the direction of a table on the far side of the room.

Amy followed the new girl's nod. "Oh, _them_. Those are the Cullens and the Hales. They're Doctor Cullen's kids. Well, I don't think any of them are actually his kids because Doctor Cullen and his wife are so young. The twin blonds are Rosalie and Jasper Hale and the one with glasses is their younger brother, Harry Hale. The really big guy is Emmett Cullen, the little one is Alice Cullen, and the last guy is Edward Cullen."

"Huh," Michelle said, never taking her eyes off of the teens.

"Yeah, well don't get your hopes up because they're all together. Like together, together," the Amy continued in a scandalized voice. "Rosalie and Emmett, Jasper and Alice, and Harry and Edward. Weird, huh? Can you imagine being paired up like that? It's like a freaky version of Noah's Ark or something. I bet the only reason Harry and Edward are together is because the others are together," she said in contempt. "So weird," she reiterated.

On the far side of the room, Harry couldn't help but smirk. "Is that why you're with me? Were you just lonely because everyone else is paired up?"

"It's because he pities you, brat," Rosalie said in a good-natured tone. "Just like those dogs of yours."

"Rosalie," Edward chastised lightly before focusing on his mate.

Harry smiled as he pushed his for-show glasses up on his nose. "Meh, pity sex is still sex."

Emmett let out a booming laugh that seemed to frighten some of the students at nearby tables. Their fright, in turn, caused Alice to giggle airily and Jasper to smirk.

"So is it like this at every school?" the youngest immortal asked as he spared the new girl a momentary glance.

"Yes," Edward said with a sigh. "You get used to it."

"Though we do pose as college students and recent high school grads every once in a while," Jasper pointed out. "Just so that we don't get too bored."

"As long as I'm with you, I don't think I could possibly get bored," Harry said as he leaned over and, to the horror of the teacher monitoring lunch hour, gave Edward a kiss on the cheek.

"The old witch is looking at you again," Emmett pointed out.

"She's disgusted. And so am I," Rosalie said. "That line was awful, my dear. You really should try harder in the future."

"And don't let Jasper give you any ideas," Alice said. "Esme won't let you do the college student thing until after you've graduated at least once. And because it will be your first time graduating, she's gonna make a huge fuss about it."

Harry leaned back in his chair and smiled at his family as they laughed at Alice's comment.


End file.
